


Vacancy Signs

by LovelyLittleGrim



Series: VS [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Growth, Death, Derogatory Language, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, Gore, Grief, Heavy Angst, It’s not just a big ball of sadness, M/M, Panic Attacks, Slooooow burn, Slow Burn, UST, Violence, Zombie Apocalypse, explicit - Freeform, lots of death, masturbation scenes, there are some fluffy and funny moments
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-03 04:54:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 83,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12741393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelyLittleGrim/pseuds/LovelyLittleGrim
Summary: Theo and Liam are on the opposite side of the United States when the apocalypse breaks out. Now, they have to find their way back to Beacon Hills without getting eaten by zombies or killing one another.It’s hard.-Please read the notes before each chapter for specific chapter warnings





	1. Starting at the End

**Author's Note:**

> IMPORTANT:  
> Guy's this is a Zombie/Apocalypse fic. There are going to be descriptions of gore and violence towards humans and Zombies alike. If you are easily triggered by these things I do not suggest reading. 
> 
> The title comes from a song by Death Cab for Cutie.  
> Enjoy.

_Where were you when the world said goodbye?_

Liam was in Manhattan, thousands of miles away from home and his pack, and to make matters worse he was stuck with Theo Raeken. As if the end of the world didn’t suck enough already with hordes of the dead rising and infecting the populace of the world, he had to be stuck with the one person that could get under his skin like no one else. Had Liam still been in Beacon Hills he would have assumed that a necromancer with a grudge was fucking around, but no, he was stuck in fucking Manhattan. Liam has never hated Scott as much as he hates him right now.

“Go to Manhattan, he said,” Liam grumbles, slouching in his chair, arms crossed like a petulant little kid. “Assert yourself as a budding alpha, he said. Make your own allies, he said.”

“Will you shut the fuck up,” Theo seethes from beside him, eyes flashing in annoyance.

Liam narrows his own eyes in a challenge, “ _Take Theo with you, he said_.”

Theo gives him a warning growl, hands curling into fists. Liam grins, daring the chimera to punch him. Wants him to, needs him to. Needs to release the fear that’s eating away at him, turning itself into anger in his bloodstream and infecting his mind, making him snappy and brash. Theo leans towards him, eyes glittering gold. Liam lets his own eyes glow; shows the need for the fight.

“If you could please refrain from murdering one another whilst in my territory, that would be lovely.” Alpha Quiana interrupts, stepping into the room. “Scott McCall is a friend of mine and I’d rather not have him blame me for the deaths of his pack members.”

“I’m not part of his p—" Theo starts, but Liam cuts him off with a sharp elbow to the ribs, knocking all the air from Theo’s lungs. Theo gasps beside him, head bowing over the table they’re seated at, trying to catch his breath.

“We apologize,” Liam says through his teeth as politely as he can muster. The itch for a fight still thrumming under his skin. God, he needs to get out of here and hit something, preferably Theo. Repeatedly.

Alpha Quiana smiles at him, dark eyes glimmering with amusement, “You are both welcome to remain here with me and my pack until whatever this is blows over.”

“That’s kind of you to offer and we both thank you for lettings us stay here for as long as we have,” Liam says truthfully. “But, I’ve seen enough zombie movies to know that this isn’t going to end anytime soon, and I’d like to get back to my pack.”

She stares him down for a long moment, eyes darting over his face and down to his chest where his heart is steadily thumping in his chest, the beat a tick faster in his nervousness under her intimidating gaze. Finally, after what seems like eons, but can only realistically be seconds she inclines her head. “As any good alpha would choose to do, Mr. Dunbar.”

Relief and elation surge through Liam; he feels as though he’s finally—and satisfactorily—passed her test.

She turns her attention to Theo. “And you Mr. Raeken, will you be leaving as well?”

Theo’s eyes shift from Alpha Quiana to Liam and then back again. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Very well,” She murmurs turning back to Liam. She holds out her hand to him, claws catching the light, glittering dangerously. “I look forward to being future allies with you Mr. Dunbar, should we all survive this pandemic.”

Liam takes it confidently, gives two firm, decisive shakes.  “I look forward to being allies with you as well, Alpha Quiana.”

The Alpha smiles warmly; places her other hand over their clasped ones. “I wish you the best on your journey back home, Mr. Dunbar.” She turns to Theo, “Mr. Raeken.”

Theo tips his head. “Alpha Quiana.”

* * *

 

“You could have stayed, you know,” Liam tells Theo as they slip through the large iron gates surrounding the Rover pack’s territory. He tilts his head back to the large house. “With them.”

Liam’s honestly surprised that Theo hadn’t jumped at the opportunity to stay. The chimera could have a very nice life here. No one here knew of Theo’s past mistakes or offenses. In fact, most of the Rover pack really _liked_ Theo, much to Liam’s amazement, and he would be treated as an equal like any other beta. Theo also wouldn’t have to venture out into a zombie-plagued world; he could stay safe and sound behind these high gates.

Theo rolls his eyes. “And let you try to make it back to Beacon Hills on your own? You would get lost and eaten half a day into your journey.” He chuffs. “Scott would hunt me down and kill me if anything happened to his favorite little beta and Stiles would help, probably with a lead pipe wrapped in barbed wire.” Theo finishes wryly as if he’s amused by the thought of being brutally beaten to death by a member of the FBI. Liam is sure he’ll never understand the chimera’s dark sense of humor.

“That’s oddly descriptive,” Liam says slowly, pausing in place to hike his backpack farther up and tighten the straps so it won’t continuously whack his lower back as he walks.

Theo nods as he walks along, leaving Liam behind. “Stiles is an oddly descriptive person.”

Meaning Stiles had definitely used it as a threat towards Theo, the spazzy human did have a way with words. Liam honestly doesn’t know what to say to that, so he ignores it completely in favor of asking, “How long do you think it’ll take to get from here back to Beacon Hills.”

Theo glances over his shoulder catches Liam’s eyes and smirks. “At the pace you’re going I’m guessing it might take us a few years.”

Liam scowls at him, hands dropping away from his backpack straps and stomps after the infuriating chimera.

Would he be a terrible person if he knocked Theo out and let him get eaten by a horde of ravenous zombies? Liam scrunches his nose. Scott would _definitely_ give him the patented look of fatherly disapproval, despite not being Liam’s dad – Or anyone else’s dad, either. He sighs at the thought of his alpha. The last time they had spoken had been just over three days ago before everything went radio silent; cells, TVs, and radios all getting lost to static since there was no one there to maintain their connection.

“Don’t worry Liam, Mr. Argent and Sherriff Stilinski have a plan, we’ve already rounded everyone up including your parents. Just keep yourself safe.” Scott had reassured him over the phone before passing it off to Liam’s parents’. Whom, first berated him for the whole being a werewolf and not telling them thing, then told him repeatedly how much they loved him and to be careful.

A loud cracking noise draws Liam from his thoughts, he flinches, claws springing from the tips of his fingers, ready to fight for his life. Up ahead Theo has gone still, head cocking to the side, listening carefully to the ensuing silence. When nothing else happens, Theo rolls his shoulders back, tension loosening in his body. He glances down at Liam’s hands and snorts, “Worried?”

“Of course not,” Liam says dryly, rolling his eyes and brushing past Theo. “What’s there to be worried about when dead guys are literally walking around eating people.”

Theo laughs quietly behind him, but they’re both still on edge. Steps quieter, ears listening for every sound the surrounding forest has to offer. They’ve been in dangerous situations before –oddly enough mostly together –but this is different. More real in a way that even Monroe and her army of hunters wasn’t. More real than the dread doctors, and the Anuk-ite, and the ghost riders. This isn’t something they can just fight and put an end to. This is everywhere, infecting everything; growing like a tidal wave as it glides towards shore, ready to destroy.

Liam won’t admit it out loud, but he’s scared and that in turn makes him worried about doing something stupid. His fear turns to anger still, turns to him making brash and rash decisions. Leaves him with scabbing knuckles and mending bones. He’s sure Theo knows he’s scared. Liam’s pretty sure that Theo’s scared too, even if the chimera is harder to read, but if Theo was going to pretend he was unaffected by the worlds sudden turn of events, then so was Liam, damn it.

* * *

 

“We need to find a store,” Theo says lowly from his left, wiping sweat from his forehead. They’ve been walking for hours now, the woods around them are just starting to thin out. The high July sun beating down on them without the impediment of treetops and thick leaves. Liam doesn’t have a watch, but if he has to guess at the time, he’s sure it’s somewhere near 2:00 P.M.

“Why,” Liam asks wiping at his own sweat-slick face. “Alpha Quiana gave us enough supplies to last for a few weeks.”

Theo glances over at him like he’s an idiot. “We don’t have a map, Dunbar. It’s a long ass walk back to California and I’d rather not get lost on the way there since we won’t be keeping to the roads.

He tilts his head back to look at the sky, expression thoughtful. “A compass would be helpful too.”

And, yeah, Liam can kind of see why Theo had assumed that Liam wouldn’t make it on his own to California.

Liam stops walking, the pit of his stomach dropping out when he finally takes stock of Theo’s words. “ _Wait, we’re walking the entire way back to California?_ That’s going to take months!”

Theo stops as well, a single brow raised condescendingly as he turns to face Liam. “How else are we supposed to get there?”

“I don’t know,” Liam throws his hands up. “I thought we could steal a car or something and drive there like they do in all end of the world movies.”

“This isn’t an end of the world movie, Dunbar.”

Theo rolls his eyes, mutters something that sounds suspiciously like; _yeah you would have already been eaten._ Says louder; “Sticking to the roads is dangerous, Liam. Especially in heavily populated states. We’re going to be walking most of the way home. Besides, the roads are probably full of empty cars, anyway.”

Liam can understand Theo’s reasoning. It makes sense. The roads will most likely all be congested with abandoned cars and roving with the dead. He can admit, in his own head anyway, that Theo’s smart. Not in a Lydia or Stiles or Mason kind of way, but in a uniquely Theo kind of way. Theo’s smart in a way that’s helped him survive for years under the Dread Doctors thumb, and on his own after being brought back from Hell. He’s smart when it comes to survival and self-preservation. Liam hopes that skill helps him out too. Still, Liam does not want to spend months walking back to Beacon Hills.

“I hate you,” Liam groans because what else can he do at this point.

“Join the club, little wolf.”

“I will,” Liam grumbles after Theo starts walking again. “I’ll be the fucking president of it. It’ll be great. I’ll make T-Shirts and everything.”

“What will the T-Shirts say,” Theo asks, looking back over his shoulder at Liam. His lips are twitching at the corners like he’s fighting back a smile.

“That you’re a fucking asshole.”

Theo laughs, incredulously. “Really, an asshole? That’s the best you can come up with? After all the things I’ve done to you and your pack, you’re going to call me an asshole? Not a psychopath or a murderer?”

“You’re not those things anymore.” Liam jogs to catch up to him, falls in line beside him and says emphatically; “But you are still a complete asshole.”

Theo says nothing in response, but when Liam peeks over at him he looks surprised. Liam can’t remember any other time, in the two years of knowing Theo, that the chimera hasn’t had a response at the ready. He feels oddly proud of himself. He can’t wait to get back to Beacon Hills and tell Stiles about this achievement.

“There’s a gas station up ahead,” Theo informs him after nearly twenty minutes of silence.

Liam doesn’t see anything up ahead but more dusty pavement and trees. “How do you know?”

“I saw it when one of Quiana’s betas picked us up from the airport and drove us to the pack house.”

“Think it’ll have what we need?”

Theo shrugs, “Only one way to find out.”

* * *

 

The store is locked when they reach it. The inside looks dark and intimidating through the grimy windows. Theo has no qualms about breaking the glass door with his elbow, crouching low and stepping inside. Liam follows suit, hesitantly. Theo doesn’t venture any further into the store though, stands just inside, his arm held out to stop Liam as well.

“Do you hear anything?” The chimera’s voice is low, head angled to the side, listening for any and all signs of danger.

Liam listens, but all he hears is the two of them, their heartbeats and nervous breathing, and the soft crunch of glass beneath their sneakers. He shakes his head. Theo nods and moves his arm, whispering, “Be cautious, just because we don’t hear anything doesn’t mean something can’t be in here.”

“Yes, mother,” Liam says quietly, he hadn’t missed Theo’s emphasis on the word: something.

Theo’s eyes burn gold beside him, claws extending as he wanders farther into the dark recesses of the store. Liam lets his own wolf loose, let’s his eyes shimmer like streets lights and his claws lengthen dangerously. He can see better now, can see shadows within shadows and it eases the growing ball of terror that’s been sitting in his stomach since the start of this horror story.

He stuffs cans of food and bags of chips into his backpack as he walks down the aisles. He spares a longing look at the candy section, guiltily eyes the tantalizing box of Reese’s peanut butter cups. He swipes three packs and stuffs them into a pocket, forces himself to walk away only to backtrack and grab one more pack. “It’s vital.” He says to himself by way of reasoning. “An important staple, a food group all on its own.”

“Are you talking to yourself?”

Liam startles, back going rigid and drops the pack of chocolatey goodness. Theo is standing behind him, golden eyes a mixture of judgment and amusement.

“Because I’d like to know now if I’m traveling with a crazy person,” Theo continues with a cool drawl, head tilting to the side. “I like to know what kind of trip I’m in for.”

“Fuck off,” Liam grumbles, embarrassment burning up his spine. Theo’s eyes drop to the floor where the bright orange package of chocolate sits incriminatingly. He lifts a single brow; it says everything his mouth doesn’t. Liam swipes the Reese’s from the floor and deliberately stuffs it into his already bulbous backpack, staring caustically at Theo the entire time. Daring the chimera to voice his thoughts on the matter. “What, you have something against candy?”

“Many things, actually,” Theo says haughtily. “Especially, Reese’s.”

Liam refuses to be goaded, he purposely ignores the jab at his candy of choice and asks “Did you find what you needed?”

Theo nods and holds up his hand. There are four nicely folded up maps in it. Liam nods inquiringly at them. “Why four?”

“Backups in case they’re lost or ruined,” Theo holds out two of the maps. “Here stick these in your bag."

Liam takes them, adds them to his growing horde of items as Theo disappears down a different aisle. Probably to stock up on things that aren’t just processed sugary goods. Liam puffs his cheeks out in irritation and leaves the aisle as well.

He pauses two rows over on his way to join Theo. A package of pens and notebooks catching his attention. He darts down the aisle and grabs several Bic pen packages in varying colors and a few pocket-sized notebooks. He’s never been much of a writer, in fact, he’s pretty terrible at writing, both literarily and physically.

 _Still,_ he thinks _. They may come in useful at some point_.

He also grabs a puzzle book, because _fuck_ it was going to be a boring trip—murderous hordes of the dead aside—without a phone or someone he actually likes conversing with. He’s positive most of the conversations between him and Theo are going to be snippy remarks and sarcasm… Lots and lots of sarcasm.  Maybe he should rethink the whole feeding Theo to a zombie idea because it’s suddenly looking good again.

* * *

 

“Are you sure this is the right direction?”

“Liam, I swear to any and every higher power that if you ask me that again I will rip your fucking head off and feed it to the first zombie we come across,” Theo growls. Which is a bit excessive in Liam’s opinion. I mean, yeah, sure, he’s probably asked about ten times within the last three hours, but it’s seriously starting to feel like they’re lost. They’ve been walking in this direction for three days already and have come across absolutely nothing other than a few spooked dear and some irritating squirrels. Not to mention that very intimidating Racoon from last night, but Liam’s refusing to acknowledge that a raccoon bested him in a fight for a bag of Doritos. If Theo asks where they went, then Liam is just going to say he ate them all. He doesn't even care that Theo will be able to hear the lie.

“I’m just saying, we should have reached a city or town or something by now,” Liam argues, tone rising in his frustration. “Do you even know how to read a map because I’m starting to doubt you do.”

Theo whirls around on him and growls. “Like you can do better.”

Liam opens his mouth, fully intent on saying _yeah, I fucking can do better,_ but Theo’s eyes go wide and the chimera clasps a hand over Liam’s mouth. His other hand grabs Liam roughly by the wrist and jerks him to the other side of a nearby tree trunk.

Liam growls low in his throat at being manhandled by the infuriating little shit. Tries to pull his face away and bite the fingers pressing roughly on his chapped lips.

Theo shushes him, eyes tracking something on the other side of the tree he has Liam pressed tightly against. Liam would complain, if he could, it’s too damn hot for Theo to be standing so close. After a pregnant silence, Theo steps back, hand falling away from Liam’s mouth.

“Look,” He whispers, motioning for Liam to peek around the tree trunk. “Quietly, don’t let them see or hear you.”

Liam’s breath catches in his throat when he sees what’s caught the chimera’s attention.

There, bloody and mottled, are two of the dead, limping and dragging themselves through the throng of summer trees. Flesh peeling away from their arms and faces, clothes in dirty tatters hanging from their decimated bodies. Liam has the sudden urge to throw up, or maybe pass out, he feels nauseous and light head. He digs blunt nails into the bark of the tree and holds on.

He wants to look away, wants to close his eyes and pretend that this is nothing more than some nightmare, but he can’t. Together, he and Theo, watch until _they_ fade away from sight, disappearing into the foliage of the woods.

Liam slides down the trunk of the tree, sits heavily in the dirt. Theo leans against the rough bark beside him. _It’s real_. Before now, they hadn’t encountered any of the --what should they even call them-- dead? Zombies? Biters? Liam and Theo had only ever heard second-hand accounts from members of the Rover pack and from what they saw on the TV until it went radio silent. Somehow seeing them in person made this suddenly more real. Made _Them_ more real.

“We must be getting close to one of the towns,” Theo says into the silence, weight shifting from one foot to the other. “We need to be more aware from here on out.”

Liam can only nod his assent. The smell of rotting flesh still hanging in the air, mixing with the earthy scent of the woods. Liam nods once more, he’s not sure if it’s at Theo or himself. Realizes it doesn’t matter anyway.

So, they’re on the right track and not lost, Liam notes happily. He’s looking over one of the maps, using the flickering flames of the low fire they built to catalog the long journey they have stretching out before them. They’re on the outskirts of a town he recognizes on the map, they’d venture closer to the highway, so they could estimate where they were, and had caught a welcome sign.

“Happy now?” Theo’s sitting on the other side of the fire. Shadows dance across his face, making him look sinister and older than he is.

“I still have to travel with you so I’m going to say no,” Liam quips, folding up the map and stuffing it back into his backpack.

Theo flips him off with a roll of his eyes and breaks the stick he’s holding in half, he tosses the pieces into the fire.

The puzzle book catches Liam’s eye as he starts to zip back up his bag, he deliberates on pulling it out. Ultimately, he tugs it free, the ends bent and a little torn from the other supplies squishing them. Even after walking all day, he’s wide awake still. He hasn’t slept much since they started this trek back home, too nervous to willingly put himself to sleep despite Theo and him taking turns throughout the night, one of them always awake to keep watch for the dead.

Liam flips through the book and pauses on a crossword puzzle. He’s never been very good at them, words aren’t really his forte, but there’s no time like the present to learn. He pulls the blue pack of pens from his bag and tears them open with his teeth. They all tumble out across his lap and roll into the dirt.

Theo makes a noise of amusement that Liam pointedly ignores in favor of grabbing up all but one of the pens and tossing them haphazardly back into his bag and zipping it shut. He learned his lesson about leaving it open thanks to the Racoon from Hell.

He reads carefully over the clues, once, twice, three times. He doesn’t understand anything. He lifts his eyes and stares irresolutely at Theo. The Chimera goes still beneath his gaze, hands ceasing in their breaking of branches. Slowly, Theo’s dark eyes lift to meet Liam’s.

Theo’s tone is biting when he says; “What?”

Liam sucks in a breath through his teeth, lets it out slowly. “What’s a ten-letter word for someone who talks too much?”

Theo blinks at him slowly, face blank.

“Liam Dunbar.

Liam squeezes his pen, hears the plastic creak between his fingers. He gives the other boy a bland look. Theo’s technically not wrong.  Liam drops his attention back down to the puzzle book. He counts out the letters to talkative and frowns when the count stops at nine letters.

_Damn it._

He should have grabbed a book of word searches or sudokus instead. Maybe they’ll come across another out of the way gas station and he’ll be able to pick something else, something easier.

“Loquacious,” Theo murmurs after Liam has already moved on four more times, searching for something he might be able to answer on the page. The chimera doesn’t meet Liam’s gaze when the werewolf looks back up at him in surprise. “It’s ten letters and means the same thing as talkative.”

Liam doesn’t comment, just scribbles in the word and moves on to the next question. He only hesitates a moment before asking for help on the next one.

* * *

 

It becomes a thing they do. Late at night after the darkness has settled in around them. After they’ve split whatever can of food they have and build a fire. Liam will pull out the puzzle book and read the questions out loud, so they can puzzle over it together. It starts and ends with bickering but before one of them goes to sleep the pages will be filled in with messy scribbles. Theo’s the one that answers most of them and again Liam is forced to confront the fact that Theo is smart. Like, really smart. He’s oddly glad in these moments, that he’s not doing this alone –The puzzle and the trip—hopes it stays like this.

It doesn’t.

* * *

 

They’ve been traveling together for nearly two months and Liam is slowly starting to lose his mind. He breathes in heavily, glaring at the birch tree standing in front of him, pale like an apparition in the shadows of the woods. Its spots stare back like a thousand unblinking eyes; judgmental and mocking. Liam growls at the bark, claws digging into the palms of his hands. Behind him, Theo scoffs, throws another log into the fire he’s been studiously building. Liam wants nothing more than to rip his head off. It’s been like this between them for several days now. Their comments getting more and more acidic as time wears on. The atmosphere around them is vitriolic and heavy like a miasma.

Liam just wants a few minutes to himself. Hasn’t had a single solitary second in months other than when he has to piss. Go to sleep, there’s Theo. Wake up, there’s Theo. Theo muttering under his breath, Theo making snide side comments and rude gestures and purposely being obstinate. Just Theo, everywhere, and Liam has fucking had it. Yeah, the guy is super good at survivalist shit, which is surprising, and not, and the same time, but Liam doesn’t know how much more he can take. He needs… Fuck, he needs something…

“What’s got your panties all in a twist now?” Theo snipes at him. Liam turns and glares at him murderously. He can see it in the set of Theo’s shoulders: The need to beat something with his hands. Knows the other boy needs it just as badly as him. The chimera’s usually more composed than this, more aloof, his desires hidden away behind a nasty grin and laughing eyes. Liam’s chest rumbles with a loud growl, eyes flashing gold, challenging Theo. Theo’s eyes answer the challenge, shimmering like molten honey.

Theo’s voice is dark and dangerous when he says: “Oh, that’s right, you always have a problem, don’t you Beta Boy.”

Liam lunges, tackling the chimera to the forest floor. Claws digging into soft flesh and ripping it to shreds. Theo gives as good as he gets, breaks one of Liam’s wrists, doesn’t wait for it to set and mend before he’s snapping Liam’s elbow in a direction it should never go. Liam roars, head bunts the chimera, breaking his nose. Theo smashes him in the face several times with elbows and fists, rolling Liam onto his back. Liam knees him in the sides, claws scratching down Theo’s back and rolls them again. They’re getting dangerously close to the fire, the heat whispers along their skin. Blood is everywhere, seeping into their clothes, coating their hands and faces and it feels good, like something they can control. Liam gives one last punch to Theo’s bruising face and rolls off the chimera.

He’s lying on his back, breathing heavily, eyes swelled so badly he can barely make out the shape of the full moon hanging high in the sky. Beside him, Theo laughs, it’s wet and raspy like he has a few broken ribs—he probably does—It makes Liam want to laugh too even though his bones ache and his lungs burn.

“Shit,” Theo lisps, raising a hand to his blood-soaked face and prodding at his nose. “How many times are you going to break my nose?”

Liam turns his head to the chimera, squints at him through swollen eyes and grins as much as his busted lips will allow. “How many times are you going to be an asshole?”

Theo’s hands fall back down to the dirt at his sides, he hums. “Don’t have an answer for that.”

“Neither do I,” Liam sighs, suddenly exhausted. He lets his eyes close and breathes slowly. He can feel his body trying to stitch itself back together, can feel the itch in his wrist and elbow as the bones start to mend. It’s an unpleasant feeling, like ants he can’t flick off walking all across his body, but it’s worth it for the calm that settles over him. For the bundle of rage that’s been eating away at him to suddenly disperse. He feels strangely empty without it. He feels good.

He can hear Theo shuffling around, hears the zip of a backpack being undone and the crinkling of paper. Theo settles back on the ground beside him with a soft grunt of pain.

“Who was Simba’s mate in the Lion King?”

“Nala,” Liam answers, listens to the soft scratch of pen on paper. “How do you not know that?”

“Never watched Lion King,” Theo says quietly. He clears his throat and asks the next question. “What kind of animal is Sven from the animated film Frozen?”

 _Guess this one is Disney themed,_ Liam muses.

Liam wants to ask about Theo’s childhood, before the dread doctors, knows he probably shouldn’t though. Not when they just fixed things between them, as much as things can be fixed between them anyway. Liam listens to Theo repeat the question two more times before saying, “He’s a reindeer, Raeken.”

“Don’t say it like you’re proud to know that Dunbar,” Is Theo’s snide reply, but it’s not nearly as biting as what they’ve thrown at each other leading up to this night. “You’re so lame.”

He didn’t even know he had fallen asleep until hours later when Theo nudges him awake for his turn at watch. Despite it only being a measly three hours, he feels more rested than he has since leaving Beacon Hills.

 _Maybe we’ll get through this_ , he can’t help but think.

_Maybe._


	2. In the inbetween

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings:  
> Description of panic attack  
> Masturbation  
> And mentions of death.

They haven’t spoken to one another since the night before, but it’s an easy silence. Loose and light. The trek through the never-ending woods is quiet, nothing save for the skittering of animals and the crunching of twigs beneath their boots. It’s in these surprisingly quiet moments that Liam finds himself thinking of home again and how far they still have left to travel before reaching it.

It’s a depressing thought; one that makes his chest feel tight, like his ribs are trying to strangle his heart. He’s put off thinking about his family and friends for weeks, didn’t have time to think about it with the constant arguing between himself and Theo, and the evading of the living dead. They’ve been on the road for weeks, maybe months, Liam’s not too sure, but he thinks it’s nearing the end of August. He worries about his parents, wonders if they’re still among the living. He wonders about the pack too, he knows they’re strong and resilient, but even they can fall.

Images of Beacon Hills being overrun by ravenous hordes of the dead flicker like a horror movie through Liam’s mind. He can see his parents’ lifeless eyes, their hands stretched out towards any signs of life, ready to rip it to pieces in order to satiate their unending hunger.

He stops walking, hands trembling at his sides. The images come faster. Ones of Mason and Corey, of Scott and Stiles and Malia and Lydia. All of them dead, but still lumbering around, bodies rotting day after day.

_He can’t breathe._

“Liam?”

His fingers are starting to go numb.

“Liam,” He hears Theo repeat, he sounds so far away. Like Liam’s slipping under ocean waves. Like he’s drowning. Liam can’t respond, his throat feels like it’s closing. His hearts pounding too fast, he worries in an abstract sort of way that it’s going to fly from his chest. He clutches at it through his shirt, trying to keep it where it belongs, trying to slow its rapid rate.

Hands are grabbing at him, large and warm, forcing him down into a crouched position. There’s a steady tapping against his left palm, his name is called over and over in between soft murmurs of reassurance.

“Liam. Liam, come on listen to me,” Theo says. “Count the taps, Little Wolf.”

Liam realizes belatedly that the tapping on his palm is Theo’s fingers. He taps against Liam’s skin three times in quick succession, then two times slowly, four times quickly, once slowly. Liam counts them, tries to find a pattern, but there isn’t one. He sucks in as deep a breath, tries to focus on the feeling of Theo’s fingers against his palm.

“That’s it, Dunbar,” Theo’s voice is soft. “Keep breathing and counting.”

His chest feels less constricted like it’s expanding; like it’s allowing him to breathe. A fog around his head is lifting, thoughts clearing, becoming less muddled, let frantic and scattered. His heart begins to slow, steadily back to its normal pace, but his hands are still trembling.

“What just happened,” Liam asks when he feels like he can talk again without it coming out shaky. He feels weirdly exhausted, likes he’s run a marathon, but there’s no aching muscles, just bone-deep weariness.

Theo sits in the grass across from him, watching Liam with wide careful eyes. “You were having a panic attack.”

 _“Oh,”_ Liam says dumbly.

So that’s what one of those feels like.

“I don’t like them” Liam murmurs more to himself than to Theo. The chimera chuckles, it sounds different than his usual laugher; oddly relieved.

“No one likes them, Dunbar.”

Theo’s quiet for a moment, eyes staring off into the distance over Liam’s shoulder before he hesitantly asks, “Do you know what triggered it?”

“I, I don’t know,” Liam admits, he doesn’t know how panic attacks work. He’s never had one before now. “I was just thinking about my parents and the pack…I was thinking about them turning…”

Theo sighs, eyes falling shut. He opens them slowly and stares straight at Liam. “Listen, your pack is strong, and it has three of the smartest and most resourceful people I’ve ever met in it. They’re fine and I’m sure they’re keeping everyone else in Beacon Hills safe too. Including your parents, Liam.”

Liam had known about the ball of anger in the pit of his stomach. He hadn’t known about the abject despair and worry sitting atop his shoulders weighing him down day by day until he finally broke. Well, he hadn’t at least until Theo finished speaking and that growing weight pressing down on his back was lifted.

Theo exhales a loud breath and stands. Liam stares up at him, watches in fascination as the chimera cocks a hip and changes his entire demeanor. He looks like Theo always does, smug and arrogant and like he’s got a million secrets locked away in his head. Secrets that Liam wants to draw out, one by one. “Now, get your ass up so we can get back to them.”

Liam, for the first time in his life, listens to Theo without argument. He pulls himself together, grabbing all of his crumbling edges and holds them tightly in his hands even as they threaten to slip through his fingers like sand.

He stands.

* * *

 

The dead are sparse in the woods, Liam and Theo only ever coming in to contact with them when they near a town or get too close to the high way or in the rare occurrence a popular camping ground, like right now. According to Theo, they’re somewhere near the Carlyle Reservoir, whatever that means.

“Oh, that’s gross,” Liam gags as Theo thrusts his claws into the back of some rotting man’s skull. The smell of decaying flesh makes his eyes water, it’s rancid.

Theo’s expression twists to one of disgust as he stares forlornly at his hand. It’s covered in skin and coagulated blood. It’s the third zombie they’ve had to dispatch today, well the third one Theo’s had to get rid of anyway. Liam refuses to stick any body part into something dead… _Yeah, that doesn’t sound weird or anything._

“Why do you keep using your hand,” Liam asks pulling out a canteen of water and a scrap of clothing for Theo to clean up with. He’s trying not to look at the rotting body laying at Theo’s feet, it brings up bad memories.

“It’s more effective than a stick or a knife,” Theo grumbles taking the canteen with his clean hand and using it to pour onto his gory one.

“It’s unhygienic is what it is.”

Theo snorts, tosses back the canteen and dries his hands. “They’re zombies, what do you expect.”

Liam flips him off good-naturedly, catching the canteen with his free hand and slipping it into the side of his bag. “Can we call them something else? I don’t like calling them zombies, it seems too Science Fiction-y”

“You do remember that you’re a werewolf, and I’m a genetically engineered chimera, right?” Theo points out. “It doesn’t get more _Science Fiction-y_ than that.”

Liam huffs, arms folding over his chest. “Yeah, I know, but it’s just weird, okay? Like, we’re dealing with a literal zombie apocalypse. I used to watch Tv shows and movies about them all the time, it just seems, I don’t know, fake?”

“What, never watch any shows about werewolves?” Theo chuckles. “There has to be at least one, right?”

Liam gives him a skeptical look. “Right, a show were teen wolves run around and save the world.”

“Seems like it would be very popular.”

Liam laughs, “Who would watch a show like that?”

Liam wouldn’t watch a show like that. It would be too weird. Plus, the werewolves would probably look too fake. Liam wrinkles his nose at the thought. The media always made werewolves overly hairy. Unless they were Taylor Lautner. Liam winces, thoughts swirling around the idea of teen wolves running around without shirts while fighting crime. He can personally say that is not an effective way to fight. _Though_ , he supposes, it would save him money on having to buy new shirts when his were inevitably shredded in battle.

Theo doesn’t answer, just tosses the bloody rag into a thatch of bushes and asks, “What do you want to call them, Liam?”

Liam startles, he hadn’t really thought about it. Just knew he didn’t want to keep calling them zombies. “I don’t know.”

“Bitters?” Theo offers, slipping his backpack on. “Z’s?”

“The living dead,” Liam muses, thought that was kind of a mouth full. Can’t really imagine himself screaming, _hey watch out there’s a living dead guy behind you_.

Theo’s face turns thoughtful, the slightest hint of a grin pulling at his lips. “What about Oxymorons?

Liam snorts. He can’t really imagine himself calling them that either, but it’s more because of the sheer ridiculousness of the name. He doesn’t tell Theo that though, instead, he says with a grin; “Yeah, okay, we’ll call them Oxymoron’s.”

“Good,” Theo nods at something over Liam’s shoulder. “Because here some come, and I’m not doing all the dirty work this time, Liam.”

Liam turns and groans. Here come five O’s, each in varying stages of decomposition. Liam shrugs off his backpack and tosses it to the side, nails extending into claws. Scott is going to get an earful from him when he gets back to Beacon Hills because at least there they have a weapons supplier and wouldn’t heave to be using their hands. He hopes he doesn’t puke while fighting this time, Theo will never let him live it down if he does it a second time.

* * *

 

“You look like a hippy,” Theo says stepping into view, a bundle of dry branches in his arms.

Liam frowns up at him from where he’s setting up rocks in a circle to build the fire in. He lifts a hand to his hair and runs his fingers through it. It’s long and feels unpleasantly greasy. He drops his hands back down to the rocks and shrugs. “Not much I can do about that.”

He waits for Theo to drop down next to him and stack the sticks in his circle of stones before nudging him playfully and saying. “Besides, you don’t look much better, Raeken.”

Theo scoffs. “I always look better, Dunbar.”

Liam hands him the box of matches. “In what world?”

“In every world.” Theo lights a single match and holds it to the handful of dry leaves and wood chips beneath the tepee of sticks until it catches. He turns and grins triumphantly at Liam, the light of the fire flickering in his green eyes and glinting off the white of his teeth. And, yeah, maybe he’s right. Liam doesn’t know what to say, he can only stare.

Theo elbows him in the side, “Hand me the cooking bowl and the can of whatever the hell we have to eat.”

Liam rummages in his bag for the bowel to hand to Theo, then fishes out the cans of food. “Carrots or Ravioli?”

“Gee,” Theo says dryly. “What a tough choice.”

Liam glances down at the cans with mock seriousness. “I thought so too.”

* * *

 

Liam knows the tail end of August is hot, but when he wakes up he feels like he’s been dipped in lava. Mouth dry and limbs sweaty. He gasps for breath as he pushes the sleeping bag off of his feverish body.

There’s a whistle, long and low from his left. He turns his head to glare at Theo.

“Looks like someone had a naughty dream,” Theo smirks at him. Liam drops his eyes to his own lap and yelps, hands scrabbling for the sleeping bag to hide the very obvious bulge in the front of his pants.

“Nothing to be embarrassed about Little Wolf,” Theo pauses, tilting his head and grinning lewdly. “Or should I say big wolf?”

Liam flops onto his back and pulls the sleeping bag over his head, “I hate you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Theo laughs. “You’re going to be president and make shirts and everything.”

“And buttons,” Liam adds, voice muffled. “I’ve decided I’m making buttons as well.”

He listens to the soft crunch of leaves beneath Theo’s feet as the chimera walks away, calling out to Liam as he goes. “I’m going to the reservoir to get more water to boil, we’re almost out.”

He listens until he can no longer hear Theo before pulling the sleeping bag down and palming himself through his jeans. They had gotten water last night before setting up camp, they were good for the next two or three days, but if Theo was being kind enough to give Liam a chance to take care of his problem then Liam was going to take it. It’s been way too long since he’s had the opportunity for this type of release.

His fingers fumble clumsily to unzip his jeans in his haste to get them open. He shoves his hand into the opening and grips himself tightly; a loud groan falling unbidden from his lips. He pumps himself several times before pausing to swipe his thumb over his slit, he hisses at the sensation, breaths coming in quick and shallow. There’s a tingle of a memory in the back of his mind like he’s remembering pieces of a dream. He can vaguely remember someone on their knees, mouth wrapped tightly around him while he moaned.

“Fuck,” he whispers stroking himself harder.

He tries to picture the person, fills the blurry figure in with various beautiful women he’s met or crushed on, but it doesn’t work. He squeezes his eyes shut as he grips roughly as the base of his dick. He’s on the precipice when an image of Theo comes to mind. The chimera backing him up against a tree with a smirk and slowly dropping to his knees.

“Fuck,” Liam chokes out, coming just as he cups the head of his dick. His head thumps back against the hard ground. Embarrassment washes over him, his fingers are sticky, and he knows he smells like cum now. He wipes his hand on the grass, wrinkles his nose in disgust when all it does is make stray blades of grass stick to his hand.

He knows he needs to roll out of his sleeping bag and clean up, but he doesn’t have the energy. Mind whirling a mile a minute. He whispers, “ _What the fuck?”_

* * *

 

When Theo finally comes back from the reservoir, sans water, Liam doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t even look at the chimera. He’s too embarrassed and ashamed of thinking of Theo like that. Of thinking of his friend, like that. Because they are friends, fighting and arguing aside. They’re all each other has and Liam isn’t going to let wet dreams or strange fantasies ruin that.

* * *

 

They’re walking along the side of a highway, despite Theo stating explicitly that they wouldn’t be. It’s littered with abandoned cars. Every now and then they stop and go through the nicer ones, looking for supplies and new changes of clothes. It’s hit or miss, mostly miss though.

They’re in Illinois, or maybe Missouri now, Liam doesn’t know. It’s been a while since he saw a road sign. Just miles and miles of endless walking, the sun beating down on them. Liam’s never been happier to be a werewolf, otherwise, he’d be a bit more worried about getting skin cancer at this rate.

“Do you want to stop and rest for a bit,” Theo asks from behind him, pace more sedate than Liam’s. Mostly because Liam’s been briskly walking for the last two and a half hours. Liam ignores him and despite the muscles in his thighs protesting, he speeds up ever so slightly.

“You can’t seriously still be mad at me,” Theo growls, Liam hears him speed up too. “It’s been hours, Liam.”

Liam can still be mad. He’s disgusted and probably a little traumatized and it’s entirely justified. It’s also entirely Theo Raeken’s fault.

“Seriously, this is childish,” Theo grumbles under his breath.

Liam whirls on him, “You threw a brain at me, Theo! A human fucking brain!

“It was an accident,” Theo says petulantly stopping a few feet away. “I didn’t know her head was going to crumble that easily and the brain got caught on my claws. I was just trying to get it off, it’s not my fault you were standing there.”

“It touched my face!”

Theo looks like he wants to laugh and if Liam wasn’t so angry he would give kudos to Theo for at least holding it in. Liam can kind of see the appeal of it being funny and had it not happened to him and his face he would be laughing, but it _had_ happened to him and his face.

Liam glowers at him, turns on foot and starts stalking away.

“I’m sorry, okay. It won’t happen again,” Theo calls after him. Liam knows it wasn’t on purpose, he also knows, because he can hear Theo’s heartbeat, that the chimera was sincere every time he had apologized. Liam is just too grossed out to forgive him, yet.

He doesn’t hear Theo start walking again, so he chances a peek over his shoulder back at the chimera. He’s just standing there, staring up at the sky, hands hanging loosely at his sides. Liam slows to a stop, a droplet of sweat slides down his forehead and onto the bridge of his nose. He turns around, stares at the tan expanse of Theo’s throat. It looks strangely long, and delicate in a way that someone like Theo should never look.

He can hear the long loud sigh Theo pushes through his lips, can see the rise and fall of the chimera’s shoulders and chest with every breath. Theo drops his head, eyes catching Liam’s gaze. Liam jolts in surprise turns around and starts walking again, embarrassed at being caught staring. He hears Theo’s low laugh and the tapping of feet on asphalt.

They walk in silence for another twenty minutes before Liam’s had enough of the sun on top of his head. He wants to be back in the woods where the coverage of trees blocked out the intense rays of the sun. It’s too hot.

Just ahead is a truck, it’s one of those unnecessarily big ones. A “Manly” truck. _There has to be some sort of ball cap or hunting hat in there,_ Liam thinks. He changes directions abruptly, making Theo stumble as he tries to follow.

“What are you doing, now?” Theo asks as Liam cautiously opens the door and sniffs inside. When he catches nothing other than the scent of dust and the faint hint of stale Doritos he swings himself inside and rummages through everything.

He makes a pleased noise when he lifts the middle compartment open and inside is both an unopened snickers candy bar and a camouflage ball cap. He grabs both, crams the hat onto his head and hops out, brandishing the candy bar at Theo like it’s a national treasure.

“You look ridiculous,” Theo says dryly where he’s leaning against the open door.

Liam rolls his eyes, “You’re just jealous you don’t have a hat or a candy bar.”

“Yes, that must be it,” Theo nods sagely. “You got me.”

Theo reaches out and grabs the bill of the hat, he grins. “You look like a little kid.”

“I have a beard.”

“You have fuzz,” Theo snorts, hand falling from the hat to Liam’s jaw. He rubs his fingers through the light hair there. Liam holds stock still, breath catching in his throat. Theo blinks once, twice and then jerks his hand back like he’s just been burned. Liam clears his throat awkwardly and takes a step back, aware all at once of how closely they’re standing.  

“Um,” Liam says, floundering for something to say. His fingers squeeze around the candy bar, so he holds it up again. “Do you want some?”

Theo’s looking to the side, at something in the truck. “No,” He says slowly, moves around Liam and opens the back passenger door.

“What are you doing,” Liam asks, climbing back into the front passenger seat to watch as Theo messes with some weird metal locker looking thing. “What is that?”

“It’s a gun safe,” Theo says, sounding positively delighted. His fingers brush over the spin dial. “Be quiet for a minute, Liam.”

Theo presses in closer to the safe, slowly he twirls the dial around. Liam listens as a series of clicks sound out. Theo’s cracking the safe and Liam has to admit he’s a little impressed.

“Liam,” Theo grumbles. “I said be quiet.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Liam whispers, annoyance coloring his tone. He had even been breathing quietly.

“Then what’s…” Theo trails off, head cocking to the side. “Do you hear that?”

Liam focuses his hearing. There is a sound, somewhere off in the distance, like voices. He closes his eyes and listens carefully. His eyes snap back open, “Someone’s screaming for help.”

He jumps out of the truck and runs towards the voices. Theo yelling angrily after him, “Liam wait!”

“Someone’s in trouble,” Liam yells back. If they wait too long, then whoever is screaming might get hurt or die or worse, they may get fucking bitten. Liam doesn’t want that to happen, not when he knows he can do something to help.

He hears Theo curse and then the groaning of metal followed by a loud clang, but he’s already too far ahead to care.

* * *

 

There is an entire crowd of O’s. A cacophony of rasping and gurgling sounds out from their hungry throats, hands clawing and reaching up towards a pair of teenagers sat atop a rickety old shed. The wood creaks and groans beneath the hands of the dead. It won’t hold out for much longer.

Before Liam can jump into the fray, claws out and ready, he’s being jerked back. He looks up into Theo’s angry eyes sweat slides down from the chimera’s windswept hair. “What the shit, Dunbar? Are you an idiot?”

“They need help, Theo!” He growls.

“Yeah, from people,” Theo says pointedly, eyes dropping down to where Liam’s claws are showing. “Not from another scary supernatural creature that looks like it can eat them.”

“I wouldn’t eat them.”

“I know that, but they don’t,” Theo says quickly. “They’re humans, and they need help from other humans.”

Theo holds up a gun.

“You got it open!” Liam glances at the throng of zombies. “Do you know how to shoot?”

“Not even a little bit, you?”

Liam shakes his head. “My parents are firmly against guns. I never even touched a gun until we fought the ghost hunters.”

Theo nods. “Okay then, guess we’re winging it _human style_.”

* * *

 

Winging it meant that Liam played the bait to lead the army of the dead away from the shed while Theo took carefully aimed shots at each of them as they limped after him.

“If you shoot me, Raeken, I’m going to rip your head off,” Liam threatens after the second near hit to his shoulder. He keeps darting in close to the shed, grabbing the attention of one of the O’s and then dancing away, just out of their reach. Drawing them close to where Theo’s hidden among the trees.

“Yeah, yeah, just move faster,” Theo huffs aiming the gun at a lady who looks like she’s literally melting, her intestines trailing along behind her. Liam gags as she leaves a trail of red grass in her wake. You would think that after living through this for just over two months he would be used to it. He’s _really not,_ wonders if he’ll ever be.

* * *

 

When the threat is completely dispatched, Theo emerges from the trees, gun held loftily in his left-hand, finger away from the trigger. He grins at Liam, “Good job, wolf-bait.”

Liam flips him off, glances over at the groaning she’d just hind him. “Come on, let’s go introduce ourselves.”

Theo makes a face, like introducing himself is the absolute last thing he wants to do, but Liam doesn’t care. It’s just been the two of them for weeks and weeks and he’ll gladly welcome a conversation with anyone who hasn’t thrown a brain at him.

The teens are carefully climbing down the side of the shed to the ground when Liam and Theo reach them. A tall dark-haired boy guides a much shorter girl until her feet touch the floor. He turns to face Theo and Liam, tugging the girl just slightly behind him.

“Thanks,” The boy says, voice grateful, but stiff.

The girl behind him huffs and knocks him out of the way. “Come on, Caleb. They just saved our lives, be a little more gracious.” She grins at them, wide and toothy. “Hey, I’m Lizette, this asshole beside me is my brother, Caleb.”

Liam smiles easily back at her, “I’m Liam, this is Theo.”

“Well, Liam and Theo, thank you for saving us, we thought we were goners for sure.” Lizette expounds, ignoring the grumbling from her brother that they were fine and had everything under control.

“How’d you two get cornered by so many O’s?” Liam asks, glancing around.

Lizette wrinkles her nose in confusion, “O’s?”

“Oh, uh,” Liam flushes in embarrassment glancing at Theo for help, but he just smirks in amusement. “It’s uh, what we call the zombies.”

Caleb snorts derisively, “Why?”

“It’s short for oxymoron,” Theo explains deftly with an air of superiority. “Since they’re the living dead.”

“It’s kinda cute,” Lizette tilts her head to the side, long black hair falling across her shoulder. “I like it.”

“We were with a bigger group searching for supplies,” Caleb says answering the original question. “We ran into some trouble though.”

“The rest of your group,” Theo inquires, though he looks like he already knows the answer.

Lizette shakes her head smiles diminishing completely. “They didn’t make it.”

She clears her throat, “So, where are the two of you heading?”

“We’re heading to California.”

“What’s in California,” Caleb asks.

“Our pac—” Liam hisses in pain as Theo’s claws dig into the skin of his back. Theo’s voice cutting him off with a sharp. “It’s where we’re from, we’re just trying to get back to our families.”

“That’s a long way away,” Lizette glances at her brother, he shakes his head twice, and she purses her lips in defiance, eyebrows conveying something neither Liam or Theo understood.

Liam glances at Theo in confusion, but the chimera just shrugs, though his stance says he’s on guard. Lizette huffs and turns to them, “We have a settlement, just about an hour from here, you’re welcome to come back with us and stay for awhile. You did save our lives and it’s the least we can do.”

“No, thank you though,” Theo says smoothly. “We really should be on our way.”

“We have hot water and beds,” Lizette adds nodding her head in the direction of her settlement.

Liam is S.O.L.D. He turns pleading eyes to Theo. It’s been forever since he’s had a bath and he is literally at the point where he would sell his soul for a pillow and a soft mattress. He is so tired of his sleeping bag and the hard ground. Theo looks stern and unyielding for all of a minute before his shoulders loosen and his eyes fall shut with a heavy sigh. “Fine, but just for tonight.”

Liam reaches out and squeezes his hand in thanks. Theo is still for a beat, but then he’s squeezing back lightly, thumb brushing over Liam’s knuckles.

Only a few seconds pass before he drops Liam’s hand and heads to the tree line where they left their backpacks.

* * *

 

Lizette and Caleb’s settlement turns out to be a small three-story hotel surrounded by a shoddy metal and wooden hybrid fence.

“How did you guys find this place,” Theo asks, eyes roving over the fence and building critically.

“We were staying here with our parents when the zombie break out happened,” Lizette calls back over her shoulder as she waves at a dark-haired woman to let them in through the fence. “Most of the residents here were staying here as well.”

A tall, dark-skinned man made his way over to them as soon as they were through the gates.

“Liz, Caleb, where are the others?” He asks voice heavy with a French accent. His eyes fall on Theo and Liam. “And who are these people?”

“Jericho, this is Liam and this is Theo,” Lizette says pointing at them in turn.

“We ran into trouble,” Caleb says darkly. “We were the only two to make it out.”

“That we know of, anyway.” Lizette cuts in. “Other’s could have escaped too.”

Jericho breathes out deeply through his nose, says something that Liam doesn’t understand, but it feels like maybe it’s a prayer for his fallen friends. Liam steps closer to Theo as if being nearer will somehow make this situation better.

“Liam and Theo saved our lives,” Lizette says quietly. “We wouldn’t be here without them.”

Jericho nods at her turns back to Liam and Theo. “Then, I am grateful to you both.”

“Liz offered them a place to stay,” Caleb explains. “As gratitude.”

A small fond smile finds its way onto Jericho’s lips, his pained eyes looking proud. “As one should.”

“Just for the night,” Theo interrupts. “We’ll be out of your hair tomorrow morning.”

Jericho waves his hand, “You need not worry, we have more than enough space here.”

He smiles at them, “Come we will get you both something hot to eat and find you both a room to spend the night in.”

* * *

 

Jericho hadn’t been lying when he said there was more than enough space.

The entire third and part of the second floor are made up for the residents to live in. The rest of the second floor is used as storage for food and other supplies while the ground floor is used as a type of base command and a lounging area for the residents. 

“And this concludes our tour,” Lizette says brandishing a set of keys for both room 210 and 219. “There’s fresh towels and soap in both of your bathrooms as well as a few other toiletries. We have breakfast at 6 to 7 in the morning in the mess hall. Have a good night’s sleep boys, see you in the morning.”

Liam takes the set of keys for room 219, Theo takes the other. They both thank Lizette who only smiles at them and walks off with a wave of her hand. Liam turns to Theo once she’s gone and grins, “Go bathe, Raeken, you stink.” He pushes Theo in the direction of his room and runs to his own, throwing open the door and slamming it closed before Theo even had a chance to retaliate.

The room isn’t very big, and it doesn’t have much in the way of furniture other than a bed, chair, and small table, but Liam doesn’t care. It's a mansion compared to how he'd been living until now. He practically floats to the bathroom, already imagining the cascade of hot water on his travel weary skin. 

* * *

 

Liam now knows what heaven looks like.

It’s a full-sized bed, with a soft blanket and a mountain of pillows, and Liam is two seconds away from just face diving straight into it and passing out when there’s a knock on his door. Liam whines pitifully in the back of his throat, sucks in a deep breath and bypasses the bed on his way to the door.

 “So, there was a person under all that dirt,” Theo teases when Liam opens the door, he reaches out to ruffle Liam’s freshly washed hair. Liam slaps his hand away, but he can’t help the grin that slowly builds on his own lips. “I was beginning to think I was traveling with a golem.”

“Shut up, like you were any better,” Liam grouses, mostly because he doesn’t know what a golem is, but he’s pretty sure it’s an insult, anyway. It is Theo, after all.

“I’m always better,” Theo says airily.

Liam snorts, “Conceited, is what you are.”

“You shaved,” Theo notes, lips twitching up into a smile. “I thought you were growing a beard.”

Liam glares at him, rubs at his cheeks and chin with one hand. “I changed my mind.”

“Because you realized it was only ever going to be awkward fuzz?”

“Fuck off.”

The chimera chuckles under his breath. Liam watches as he slips a hand into his front pants pocket and pulls out a small brown object. He throws it at Liam, “Here, you left this in the truck when you ran off to play hero.”

Liam fumbles the object before grasping it tightly in his right hand. He looks down at it curiously.

It’s the candy bar.

When he looks back up Theo’s already walking down the hall towards his own room for the night.

“Thanks,” Liam whispers stumbling over the words.

Theo glances back at him and grins. “Night Wolf-Bait,” He laughs then disappears into his own room and shuts the door.

“Yeah,” Liam says slowly. “Night.”

He shuts his own door, locks it and hits the switch for the lights. The room is plunged into darkness, he doesn’t bother using his other vision to make it to the bed, just stumbles through the dark and falls onto the soft pillow top mattress with a hearty sigh.

“Finally,” He murmurs into the comforter.

He wonder’s if Theo will let them stay a little longer than a day. Liam doesn’t want to stay forever, he misses his pack and his family, but still, it’s nice to be surrounded by other people and it’s nice to feel clean and safe for the first time in months.

Liam rolls to his side and closes his eyes, the candy bar is a comforting weight in his hand. He'll worry about it tomorrow.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Constructive criticism is always welcome as any an all mistakes are my own. Feel free to point out any grammatical or spelling errors you find.  
> You can find me on tumblr under the same user name.


	3. More To Say

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was only ever supposed to be 3 chapters, somehow that turned into 4 which then turned into 5. Here's to hoping it stays at just 5.

Liam feels more exhausted then he has in a while. The bed beneath him is soft and comfortable, cradling his travel weary body perfectly, but sleep is nothing more than a passing fancy. The room is quiet, the only sound his breathing and the sleepy beat of his heart. There’s no fire crackling the night away, no rustle of animals in the brush, or fluttering of wings. Just silence; loud in its emptiness and oppressive. He stares up at the dark ceiling in defeat, waits for the dawning light of the sun to peak through his curtains.

* * *

 

Theo is already in the mess hall, sitting wedged between Lizette and a girl with short platinum hair. The skin beneath his eyes looks dark, as though he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep either, but he’s nodding along to the conversation and smiling in that faux charming way he has. Liam’s learned to spot the difference. Liam’s seen Theo smile for real, doesn’t think anyone can be fooled after witnessing it.

“Ah, Liam, good morning.” A voice greets him, a large hand landing on his shoulder. Liam jerks his gaze away from Theo guiltily.

 “Morning, uh… _Mr._ Jericho?”

“Just Jericho is fine,” The man grins brightly down at him. “Come, let us get you a plate of food.”

He steers Liam towards the line of food and Liam’s mouth salivates at the smell of it. There are seasonings and meat that isn’t squirrel or rabbit, Liam changes his mind about the bed, this right here is heaven.

There’s a long table with a line of servers behind it, doling out food onto glass plates and handing out silverware. Jericho greets them by name, introduces Liam to each of them, but Liam only has eyes for the large container of scrambled eggs. The server, Liam thinks his name is Ralphie, heaps a pile of the fluffy eggs onto a plate and hands it over to the next server who adds a large chunk of toasted bread and meat next to the eggs.

“It’s deer meat,” Jericho explains. “And Martha cooks it brilliantly.”

“You flatter me, Jer.” Martha laughs, blue eyes crinkling delightedly at the compliment.

“I speak only truths, my dear,” Jericho replies with a coy smile.

A boy leans in close to Martha, he’s maybe a year or two younger than Liam, and loudly whispers, “Stop flirting in front of the guest, you two.” He drops half an apple onto Liam’s plate, takes it from a red-faced Martha and hands it to Liam. “Enjoy, dude.”

“Thanks,” Liam chuckles, hurrying away from the sputtering adults.

“Morning,” Lizette yawns, poking at her own plate of eggs when Liam drops into the seat across from her.

“Morning.” Liam smiles, picking up his fork and digging into his breakfast. The first bite is amazing, the eggs soft and warm. He scoops some up onto his bread and takes a large indelicate bite. He’s pretty sure he can die happy now. “This is delicious.”

Theo’s nose wrinkles in disgust. “Don’t talk with your mouth fool, you animal.”

Lizette laughs,” I suppose it would seem pretty good after being on the road.”

The girl on Theo’s other side leans in towards him and asks; “What do you guys normally eat while you’re out there?”

Liam pauses, bread halfway raised to his mouth, but Theo answers the question before he has a chance to.

“Usually whatever we find that’s nonperishable, and we hunt sometimes so we have rabbit or squirrel.” Liam makes a face because he’s tired of eating squirrel. Theo ignores him, lips twitching at the corners in a way that puts Liam on guard. “Though, Liam seems to survive primarily on whatever candy he finds.”

Liam flips him off, mouth too full of food to make a snappy comeback. Theo’s lips twist in that way they do before he smiles for real, but it’s gone entirely too fast as his mouth falls back into the comfortable fixture of a half smirk. As though remembering last minute that it’s not just the two of them sitting at this table trading barbs.

“A fellow candy junkie,” The girl grins conspiratorially at Liam, she holds her hand out. “I’m Blythe, by the way.”

Liam drops his bread back onto his plate to shake her hand, he’s surprised by how tiny it is compared to his own. “Liam.”

He notices Theo staring at him when he let’s go of Blythe’s hand to resume eating, the chimera’s dark green eyes flicker across his face like he’s cataloging the exhaustion there. He doesn’t say anything though, Liam knows him well enough to know he’ll bring it up later when they’re alone. Liam stares back, just long enough to make Theo look away, eyes falling to his empty plate. Liam picks up his hunk of bread and without really thinking about it, he rips it in half and sets a portion on Theo’s plate before stuffing his own warm, buttery piece into his mouth.

Theo picks up his piece slowly, eyes traveling back up to meet Liam’s for just a moment. He doesn’t say anything, Liam never expected him to, just rips the bread up into smaller pieces and eats it.

“Well, that was super… heartwarming,” Lizette breathes, she’s leaning an elbow on the table, watching Liam and Theo as she twirls a fork between her fingers. She looks like she’s trying not to grin, but failing miserably.

Liam ignores her, pretends to be very interested in the remaining bit of his eggs. He tries not to think about how that might have looked from an outside perspective because he’ll get embarrassed and when that happens he tends to full body blush.

Like, he is right now.

_Damn it._

“Hurry up and finish eating,” Theo says, his voice giving nothing away. “Liz and Blythe are going to show us around _The Shop._ ”

“What’s the shop,” Liam asks around his last mouthful of eggs, just because it’ll irritate Theo.

Theo rolls his eyes.

“It’s kind of like a trading post,” Blythe explains brushing her fringe out of her face. “It’s set up behind the hotel and completely surrounded by a fence so that it's protected from the Zombies."

“It was already closed when you two arrived yesterday,” Lizette chimes in. “Otherwise I would have featured it in your glorious tour.”

Theo snorts out a quiet laugh, Liam grins conspiratorially. The glorious tour had consisted of Lizette pointing at things and going: _There’s that, here’s this, and here are the keys to your room._

Theo and Liam wouldn’t have known what anything actually was if Caleb hadn’t trailed watchfully along behind them yesterday, murmuring lowly what everything was. He’d disappeared though, just before Lizette had shown them to their rooms, apparently getting bored with the lack of violent intentions.

“Shut up,” Lizette huffs good-naturedly. She smiles at Liam. “Done?”

Liam nods, picking up his plate and following along behind Blythe and Lizette as they drop their dishes into a large bucket to be washed.

“We take turns for chores,” Blythe offers up. “Jericho made a schedule, so everything works out fairly.”

“We got lucky having him here.” Lizette agrees.

Theo glances over at the table Jericho is sitting at, chatting with his peers. “Does he do chores?”

“Yeah, everyone does,” Blythe answers, falling into step with Theo as they all exit the mess hall. “We don’t have favoritism here, everything is equal work and equal pay. Leader or not.”

“Sounds nice,” Theo murmurs.

Liam blinks in surprise when Lizette pushes open a set of doors labeled emergency exit and leads them out onto a back patio. It’s bright outside, the early morning cloudless and blue. She motions for them to follow her down a short flight of stairs and onto a field of bright green grass. Just ahead of them is several large pitched tents, the sides of them missing as people scurry around and through them, looking at tables of goods and merchandise.

“Welcome to The Shop.”

* * *

 

The handlers and sellers at the shop are mostly residents of the hotel, though some of the people come from other survivor communities. Liam is amazed that there are still so many living, breathing people left in the world. He’s seen too many dead in such a short amount of time that he had started to think maybe it really was just him and Theo.

“This tea helps fight infection,” a scraggly old woman tells him, holding out a small glass mason jar filled with dull yellow petals and dried berries. Liam shakes his head giving the woman a polite smile of disinterest as he wanders away.

“You look like you didn’t sleep at all,” Theo comments sidling up next to Liam. Lizette has dragged Blythe over to a table laden with ornate guns and knives, Liam can just barely make their voices out over the bustle of other people and loud negotiations. He can hear Lizette saying something about Caleb’s birthday before he turns his attention completely to Theo.

“I didn’t,” Liam admits, brain too tired to come up with a witty retort or a semi-convincing half lie.

Theo looks surprised at the straightforward answer, mouth parting like he’s going to admit the same thing before it clicks closed, his neutral expression pressing back into place. He doesn’t say anything else, just gives Liam a barely perceptible nod of his head and wanders ahead again.

Liam watches as he catches up to and easily chats with Blythe, Lizette having disappeared into the surrounding crowd. He tells himself there’s no real reason to feel jealous just because his only friend is getting along with others. Theo is allowed to make friends with other people. Liam wants to encourage it, honestly, he does, even if there is a small part of him that’s weirdly bitter.

He tells himself it’s just strange to see Theo talking so easily. There’s no defensive set to his shoulders, no weariness to his eyes like he’s expecting to be shot down or mocked. The chimera has been a part of the official pack for just over a year now, and maybe that doesn’t mean much to some of the other pack members, but it meant something to Scott and it means something to Liam.

Liam isn’t stupid. He knows that there are others in the pack that view Theo as nothing more than a convenient shield or soldier to use whenever they see fit. He also knows it’s not without good reason. Theo _was_ a really bad guy before and maybe at one point he deserved that treatment, but not now, not anymore. When they finally reach Beacon Hills Liam will make sure no one in the pack treats Theo like that ever again.

“Whoa, what is up with that broody look,” Lizette says, coming out of nowhere and brutally bringing Liam out of his reverie.

“What—I, nothing!” Liam stumbles over his words.

The girl raises one thick, dark brow at him, “Uhuh, sure. So, it has absolutely nothing to do with your boyfriend flirting with Blythe right in front of you?”

Liam stares at her blankly. “Theo’s _not_ my boyfriend, we're barely even friends at all."

Lizette glances over at where Theo and Blythe are admiring some hand-woven blankets, they’re leaned close together, talking low enough that not even Liam can hear them.

“Seriously?” She looks skeptical. “I was getting serious couple vibes from the two of you at breakfast, and yesterday you grabbed his hand.”

He had forgotten about that. He’d only meant it as a silent thank you. It wasn’t supposed to make them look like an item.

“We’re just traveling companions," He tells her. The words feel like a lie, but it's not like he can tell her that they're part of a pack together. Or that the only reason they're even together now is because of their alpha suggesting that Liam take Theo with him. 

Her brow wrinkles. “Oh, guess I was wrong then.”

Liam nods adamantly, “Yeah, super wrong.”

* * *

 

“He talks a lot,” Lizette says. They’re following along behind Theo and Blythe now, trailing after them at a sedate pace, neither of them really care about catching up. “ _Your friend,”_ She adds putting a strange emphasis on the words like she still doesn’t believe that that’s all they are to one another.

Liam rolls his eyes and for some reason, they land on Theo.

He supposes that the chimera _does_ talk a lot. Liam’s pretty sure the older boy loves the sound of his own voice, or maybe he just doesn’t like the sound of silence, but Theo doesn’t really _say_ much. It’s all superficial; nothing of substance. Just little barbs, and teases, and hints at things that could possibly mean more, but he never elaborates on. Liam’s grown to see that, grown to hate it. There’s still so much he doesn’t know about Theo, despite spending every waking hour together since the beginning of July.

“What day is it,” Liam asks suddenly curious. Lisette gives him a strange look like she’s trying to figure out how they went from talking about Theo to Liam asking about the date.

“It’s September 6th.”

“Oh,” Liam nods distractedly. So, it’s not the end of August like he had originally thought. He tilts his head up, sunlight filters in through the large gaps between tents. “Why is it still so hot?”

Lizette shrugs. “Global warming?” She sounds amused by the quick switch of topics.

Liam drops his head back down, wishes he had grabbed his hat from beside his bed when a too long lock of hair slips into his eyes. He brushes it back from his face. “Where are you originally from?”

“Oklahoma,” Lizette drawls, effecting a country twang. She smiles softly like she’s thinking about it.

“Sounds, um,” Liam tries to think of something, but the only thing he knows about Oklahoma is that there are fields of waving wheat? If those are even the correct words to the song he learned back in elementary school. “Nice?

She laughs, “Well, we can’t all be from fancy states like California. What’s the ocean like? I’ve never seen one.”

They pause next to a table that looks like the entire contents of some cat lady’s home has exploded over it. Teacups, saucers, pictures, and even little figurines all cat shaped or painted with the whiskered little fiends. Liam lifts a bright pink bowl that has cat ears and a tail that doubles as a straw, he brandishes it towards Lizette who looks a little horrified as she adamantly shakes her head no.

Liam laughs and sets it back down carefully. “You’ve never seen an ocean?”

“Nope, one of the tragedies of living in a landlocked state, my friend.” She dramatizes, slinking an arm around one of his and pulling him far away from the cat table. “Describe it.”

“It’s big and blue and smells like salt,” Liam says because it is. “It’s also surrounded by terrifying birds that you should never feed unless you enjoy being chased across the beach.”

“I’ll keep that in mind if I ever make it there.”

“What’s Oklahoma like?”

“It’s kinda,” She pauses grinning up at him. “Plain.”

It’s a terrible pun, but they still both end up laughing until their eyes water and their sides ache. It’s nice to forget, even for a little while, that the world is complete shit outside of these safe gates.

* * *

 

Trading stories of his hometown and how he had grown up with Lizette has made him feel nostalgic. Makes him ache to just be home already, to see his parents and his best friend again. He never knew how much he could miss someone until now. He thought he had when Hayden had moved away with her sister, he had missed her for weeks, months even, but the pain he had felt then is different than the one he feels now.

He wants to hug his parents and spill his ever-growing list of secrets with Mason. He wants to see Scott’s patented grin and hear one of Stiles' stupid jokes, he’s even starting to miss Lydia’s judgmental stare and Malia’s blunt honesty.

He just really, really wants to be home now.

“Well, it’s certainly gloomy over here,” Theo comments, dropping onto the couch beside Liam in the hotel lounge. “What happened? Where’d Liz go?”

Liam shakes his head, “Nothing happened, we were just talking about life from before all this.”

“And she ran away screaming because you told her you were a werewolf?” Theo asks head tilting to the side mockingly. “Seriously, what’s with the kicked puppy look?”

“No, dumbass,” Liam scoffs, but he’s starting to smile. “Jericho wanted her and Caleb to give a full report about yesterday, so she had to go.”

“And I do not look like a kicked puppy,” Liam adds looking around, “Where’d Blythe go? Finally, scare her off?”

“Something like that,” Theo’s mouth pulls up on one side as he leans back into the couch and closes his eyes, arms crossing languidly over his chest. He looks oddly relaxed.

Liam stares at him. Stares long enough that Theo, even with his eyes closed, notices it. He cracks open a single dark green eye and stares pointedly back, but Liam doesn’t look away.

Theo huffs, though it sounds less annoyed and more resigned to having a conversation. “What?”

“Do you want to stay here?”

Liam doesn’t know why he’s just asked that, but he feels the same way as when he had asked Theo about staying with the Rover pack in Manhattan. Theo could live here, without anyone knowing about his past, he could be free to start something with Blythe if he wanted, he could be happy. No passive aggressive insults thrown at him from pack members, no looking like a dog waiting to be kicked again. Liam doesn’t like the selfish part of him that hopes Theo says no.

Theo looks confused, he’s sitting up again, both eyes open and giving Liam their full attention. “I thought you wanted to get back to California.”

“I do, I meant…” Liam trails off, he doesn’t know how to phrase this without it sounding like he’s trying to pawn Theo off on someone else. “I meant do _you_ want to stay here.”

“Already trying to get rid of me?” Theo asks lightly. “And here I thought we were making progress.”

Theo smiles, but it’s forced, a tightness around his eyes that wasn’t there just moments ago as he turns away to stand and leave. He doesn’t get far before Liam panics and grabs him roughly by the hand, their fingers tangling. “No!”

Theo looks back at him, eyes falling to where their hands are connected and then back up to Liam’s face. His expression unreadable.

Liam flushes under his gaze, but he doesn’t let go. He doesn’t want Theo to walk off before he explains his jumbled thoughts.

“I mean, no,” He says quieter. “I’m not trying to pawn you off, I was just curious, you looked like you were enjoying spending time with Blythe.”

“I was,” Theo says, stiffly. “Doesn’t mean I want to stay here.”

“Good,” Liam whispers not looking at Theo. He squeezes lightly at the hand tangled with his and then let’s go. He clears his throat, tries for a self-depreciating smile. “I’m not sure I could find my way back to Beacon Hills alone.”

There’s a pregnant pause, heavy with tension, and then Theo says, “You’d end up in Canada, somehow.”

The tension eases.

* * *

 

It’s just after noon when Liam and Theo decide to pack it up and head back out onto the road. Lizette looks sad to see them go. Caleb stands next to his sister looking thrilled to see them leaving. Liam’s not sure why the boy doesn’t like them, especially after they had saved his life. Chalks it up to being pride.

Lizette pulls him into a tight hug, “I’ll miss you, you tiny brooding bundle.”

Liam’s nose wrinkles at the nickname and prays to anyone that’s listening that Theo is too busy talking to Blythe to have overheard it.

“I’ll miss you too," He tells her and is surprised to find he does mean it. He really hopes he sees Lizette again, just on better terms. Like, maybe, if one day the world gets fixed so that the girl can come see him in California, and she can finally see an ocean.

“We’re heading to Beacon Hills,” Liam hears Theo tell Blythe just a few feet away from them. “If you ever leave here, you should head that way. There are good people there that will take you in.”

“Thanks, Theo.” He watches Blythe pull Theo into a hug from the corner of his eye, watches as the chimera freezes up and then seems to melt, hugging her back gently.

Lizette nudges Liam, nods her head at Theo and wiggles her brows. He huffs and nudges her back with a roll of his eyes. Mutters from the corner of his mouth, “Just friends, remember.”

“Never looked at my _just friends_ like that,” Lizette mumbles under her breath, pulling him into another hug and ruffling his hair much like an older sister would. When she pulls back she takes the hat out of Liam’s hand and stuffs it onto his head. She grins. “See you around, loser.”

* * *

 

“So, you and Blythe,” Liam tries to coax as nonchalantly as he can as they make their way back towards the highway they had abandoned the day before.

“What about me and Blythe,” Theo asks, a wrinkle appearing between his eyebrows like he’s trying to predict where this conversation is going. Liam thinks it’s pretty obvious what he’s trying to ask.

For someone so clever Theo has the oddest dumb moments. Liam wonders if maybe it’s a byproduct of living in sewers with dread doctors. Sure, Theo knows all there is about how to survive on his own and random ass science terms, and a shit ton about both biology and chemistry, but the older boy knows nothing about basic human cues. Or Disney. He also tends to burn the food whenever he cooks it, but that’s neither here nor there.

“You two seemed close, today.”

There’s a small pause before Theo announces; “That’s generally how people have discussions when they don’t want to be overheard.”

Liam feels like facepalming himself, hard. A few times. He stares at the side of Theo’s face and frowns. Theo cannot be this oblivious.

“I meant—”

“I know what you meant, Liam.” Theo cuts him off. He doesn’t look over at Liam, just keeps on walking, like he’s on a mission to get as close to California today as possible. “Blythe was a Huldra. She knew we weren’t human and wanted to talk to someone that understands what it’s like to live among humans when you’re not one.”

“What’s a Huldra,” Liam asks, wishing for the first time that he had paid attention to Lydia when she gave him and Mason lesson’s over the various monsters in the packs’ beastiary.

“A forest dweller,” Theo answers like it explains everything.

Liam huffs, jogs to catch up to the frustrating boy when he starts to pull farther ahead. “Then, why isn’t she in the forest?”

Theo looks at him from the corner of his eye and snorts, “Because it’s the twenty-first century?”

“Oh.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, just, ‘oh’.” Liam shrugs, not sure what else to say. He wasn’t expecting any of that. He thought that Blythe had been interested in Theo and that Theo had felt the same way about the girl. He hadn’t noticed anything supernatural about Blythe at all, he feels a little dumb.

Theo’s giving him a weird look, “Liam… were you…” He trails off, shakes his head. “Never mind. Come on, walk a little faster.”

* * *

 

They make it across the state line into Missouri, just before night falls, and set up camp. They build a fire, roll out their sleeping bags, and sift through the cans of food and swaddles of cured meat that Jericho had given them before they left.

“It was nice, being around other people,” Liam says thoughtfully, as he listens to the cicadas sing in the trees and taps his spoon against his empty can of beans.

“What, I’m not good enough company?” Theo snarks, leaning back on his sleeping bag.

“Not even a little bit,” Liam jokes, trying to stifle a yawn. He licks his spoon clean, drops it in the can and sets them both down next to the fire.

Theo flips him off, “Go to sleep, loser, I’ll take first watch, tonight.

Liam doesn’t argue, he’s too tired to put up even a semblance of a fight, just unzips his sleeping bag and crawls inside it. He closes his eyes and lets the sound of the woods wash over him. The crackle of the low fire, the rustle of wind through the leaves, the steady _thump-thump_ of Theo’s heartbeat and falls asleep to the abstract knowledge that this is what had been missing the night before. He would have found the thought disconcerting had he not been so exhausted.

* * *

 

 

A chill is settling into the air, the green of summer changing into a motley of red and gold as autumn dawns across the states around them. They’ve been on the road for weeks now. Liam knows because he’s been marking the days down in one of the little notebooks he had swiped at that very first store. They haven’t covered nearly as much ground as they had hoped to.

The first few days after leaving the hotel had been fast-paced, with them hardly stopping for breaks in their urgency to get home, but that had backfired pretty quickly when they nearly ran into a mile-long horde of O’s near Odessa. They had been forced to take refuge in a bookshop for three days until the train of dead had moved on.

Neither of them had reacted well to being cooped up and by the three-day mark Theo had had to reset his nose eleven separate times and Liam had been forced to throw away two of his shirts because Theo had clawed through them. Liam was ready to kill the chimera the minute Theo put several small holes into Liam’s third shirt when Theo had suddenly stopped fighting against him and smacked a hand over Liam’s mouth.

“Shut up,” Theo had hissed. “Do you hear that?”

Liam had glared at Theo until the chimera dropped his hand away from his mouth, so he could say; “Hear what?”

“Exactly,” Theo had said nudging Liam off of him, so he could roll to his feet and dart to one of the windows. “Liam, come look.”

Liam doesn’t think either of them has ever been as happy as they were in that exact moment; standing side by side staring elatedly out the window at an empty street, not a single Oxymoron in sight.

“Earth to Liam,” Theo huffs, pushing Liam’s shoulder causing him to stumble over into a patch of dead vines

Liam blinks at the older boy in confusion. “What?”

“You’ve been staring off into space for hours,” Theo says defensively. “I’ve asked you twice if you wanted to take a break and you haven’t answered once.”

“Oh,” Liam scratches at the back of his head. “Sorry?”

“What were you so lost in thought about,” Theo asks curiously, head tilting to the side in a way that reminds Liam of a puppy he had temporarily had as a child before his father realized that Liam was allergic to dogs.

“Oh, um.”  Liam pauses.

He wracks his brain for something that doesn’t sound completely stupid because he hadn’t been thinking much of anything really. Just passing thoughts to get him through the repetitive scenery, there and gone too quickly to be made into much of anything. “Do you think Scott’s going to try to fight the entire zombie apocalypse?”

He cringes. _What the fuck._

Theo lets out a startled laugh, tries to turn it into a cough at the last minute, but it’s too late.

Liam’s mouth curves up at the sound, entirely too pleased with himself.

“Shut up,” Theo grumbles, swatting at Liam in faux annoyance. His head is turned away from Liam, but Liam can still see the upturned corner of the chimera’s mouth and knows he’s smiling when he says: “Sounds like something Scott would try to do.”

They end up walking a couple more hours before finally stopping for the night. Setting up camp is routine by now and they have it down to an exact science. Theo disappearing to look for food while Liam gathers sticks and stones and dry bits of leaves and wood chips to build a fire.

“Hope you like squirrel,” Theo says with a snort trudging back into camp, his hands and face flecked with mud. There are two squirrels dangling by their tails from his left hand. He lifts them up high so that Liam can clearly see them.

“You know,” Liam says with a put-upon sigh because Theo knows how much he fucking hates squirrel. “That never gets funny, no matter how many times you say it.”

Theo shrugs, uncaring. He tosses one of the squirrels at Liam, who squawks indignantly and dodges the tiny dead animal. Theo breathes heavily through his nose and rolls his eyes. “You baby.”

Liam flips him off with one hand, the other delicately grasping the fluffy tail of the squirrel by his finger-tips. He makes a face at it, he hates having to skin and gut his own food. It makes him feel a little guilty.

He flinches at the sound of fur ripping and takes a deep calming breath. He can do this. He will do this. It’s survival of the fittest. Eat or be eaten. Kill or be killed. He’s a werewolf for fuck's sake.

The squirrel is jerked out of his hands and for one horrifying moment, Liam thinks the little bastard had just been playing dead. He startles, looking up into Theo’s amused eyes as the chimera takes Liam’s squirrel and begins skinning it. His own already finished and resting on a shoddy little spick over the fire. Liam feels thoroughly chagrined as he watches Theo deftly remove the fur with four tiny slashes of his claws and then guts the little critter.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Theo says placing the squirrel on the fire next to his own. He sounds neither condescending nor mocking, but Liam isn’t inclined to believe him anyway.

“Maybe,” Liam grumbles staring dejectedly into the fire. The smell of cooking meat makes his stomach rumble. He should already have the hang of it. It’s late October now, they’ve been doing this for months.

Theo flicks him on the nose, the sharp sting of it makes Liam’s eyes water as he yelps in pained surprise.

“What the shit, Raeken!”

Theo smirks. “You were looking a little emo over there, Dunbar.”

Liam growls at him.

Theo’s smirk widens. “Gonna cry, little wolf? Should I find you some tissues?” He provokes.

“Fuck off, Theo,” Liam scowls, he can feel his claws inching out, feels them dig into his palms.

“Or what,” Theo taunts. “You’ll sob all over me?”

Liam cuts Theo’s laughter off with an angry shout, tackling him back off the small boulder the chimera had claimed near the fire. He knocks the breath out of the older boy as they land roughly on the cold, hard ground.

“Jesus, Dunbar, take a joke,” Theo grunts rolling to his side away from Liam, but not before pinching Liam harshly on the sensitive patch of skin on the underside of his arm.

“I would if you knew how to make one!” Liam kicks at him, catches the chimera in the thigh hard enough to leave a bruise for at least a few minutes.

“Don’t be so sensitive, you baby wolf.”

“Don’t be such an asshole, then!”

Liam reaches out to claw at Theo but pauses when the smell of burning meat reaches his nose. He chances a glance over at the fire and see’s that the squirrels are looking less like meat and more like char.

“Damn it!” Theo curses and staggers up to his feet to pull the spicks away from the flames.

Liam laughs as he watches Theo swing the sticks around, trying to put out the fire that’s meant to be their dinner.

So, what if he can’t get up the nerve to skin a squirrel? Theo can’t cook anything without setting it aflame.

Maybe that’s why they work so well together, Liam can’t help but think as he stands to help the cursing chimera.

They complement each other as opposites, what one cannot do or is not willing to do, the other can and will. Liam doesn’t worry about them making it through this anymore. He knows they will, they just have to do it together.

“Hold still dumbass, you’re going to catch the whole forest on fire.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, constructive criticism is welcome as any and all mistakes are my own.  
> Feel free to point out any grammatical or spelling errors, or inconsistencies. 
> 
> Sorry if this chapter seemed a little all over the place, I kept getting my timeline confused.


	4. Learning Curve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHAPTER WARNING:  
> -Detailed description of masturbation  
> -

Liam’s in the middle of brushing his teeth when he hears it; the whisper of fabric and a low groan. He pauses mid-reach for his canteen of water, toothbrush dangling from his mouth. He turns to where Theo is passed out, curled up in his sleeping bag next to the dead fire.

_Was the sound coming from him?_

Liam watches as Theo shifts in his sleep, one hand curling into the fabric beneath his head. The chimera’s breathing is faster than it should be, louder, only breaking when he lets out a quiet groan. Liam blinks in surprise. Usually, Theo doesn’t make a sound; doesn’t snore or mumble or even twitch, his body too exhausted to do anything more than shut itself down.

 Liam frowns, pulls his toothbrush from his mouth and makes his way over to his sleeping friend intent on waking Theo up. He falters when Theo lets out another breathy groan, this one sounding decidedly unpainful. The scent of arousal permeates the air around them. Liam freezes half away across the encampment, eyes wide, a blush working its way from the top of his head to his toes. From this position he can see Theo’s face; it’s slack with sleep, lips slightly parted around pants of breath.

_Not a nightmare._

Liam back peddles to the far side of their camp, heart beating wildly within his chest. He pleads to anyone listening that Theo wakes up soon. Pleads that he stops making those sounds and moving his hips minutely beneath the sleeping bag like he’s searching for the right type of friction. Liam swallows thickly, slips his toothbrush back into his mouth and begins scrubbing his teeth furiously. He focuses on the  _Shh Shh_  sound his toothbrush makes against his teeth, breathes in the minty smell of his toothpaste. He doesn’t care that he’s already brushed his teeth, doesn’t care that he was essentially done when Theo had let out that first breathy moan.

 _Dental hygiene is important_ , Liam thinks.  _Even in an apocalypse—Especially in an apocalypse._

Theo let’s out another soft sleepy whine and Liam bites down on his toothbrush so hard it cracks. The sound rings out through the clearing; sharp and sudden. He sucks in a nervous breath when Theo rolls onto his back, eyes blinking open sleepily. He looks oddly soft and sleep ruffled; face flushed with arousal as he focuses his attention on Liam.

Liam feels like a deer caught in the head lights. “Sorry,” His voice breaks. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

The chimera shakes his head and sits up, the sleeping bag falling around his waist. “What was that sound?”

“I was brushing my teeth and it, uh, broke.”

“You’re teeth?”

“My toothbrush,” Liam clarifies.

Theo hums, there’s a wrinkle between his brows, the lower half of his body shifting uncomfortably beneath the partially zipped sleeping bag. He’s staring pointedly at Liam like he’s trying to convey a message using only his eyes.

“Oh!” Liam fumbles the broken pieces of his toothbrush and turns on foot to face away from Theo.

He remembers when he had woken up with a hard-on, arousal sitting low in his stomach and the need for release thrumming in his veins. He’d been to embarrassed to stand up and leave the camp to take care of himself. And, was too prideful to ask Theo to leave just so he could jerk one out, but Theo had left anyway. Theo had made up a little lie, just enough for Liam to save face, and then had disappeared into the woods for a while.

Liam can offer him that same courtesy.

“I’m, um, just going to, uh,” Liam points in a random direction, studiously not looking at Theo. “Yeah.”

He can offer that same amount of courtesy, just not the same smooth delivery in which Theo had offered it.

Theo’s chuckling under his breath when Liam hastily makes his exit through the trees. He’s barely made it a few feet into the brush when the laughter fades out into a low needy moan. Liam curses Theo and walks faster, his face feeling oddly warm despite the cool autumn breeze. The asshole had probably done that on purpose.

He’s not sure how long Theo needs to take care of his problem; doesn’t know when he should turn around and head back to camp. So, he just keeps walking, as carefully and quietly as he can, branches and leaves crunching underfoot with each step he takes. He doesn’t stop until he finds himself in a large clearing, huge formations of rocks and crumbling boulders scattered across the land. He glances back at the path he’s just trudged through the sea of trees and shrugs at himself. He’ll hang out here for a while. 

He reaches out to hoist himself up onto the first boulder he comes up to only to realize that he’s still holding the broken remains of his toothbrush. He lets out an annoyed puff of air and throws the pieces into the grass. Thankfully, he has an unopened spare somewhere in the bottom of his backpack that he can use. Liam climbs the smaller bolder and jumps up onto the even larger one beside it. He stands there looking out at the rows of mostly barren trees, the ocean of dead grass and red-gold leaves. It’s chilly this early in the morning, but the sun is rising strong and warm, higher and higher into the sky. Its golden rays a comforting heat along the line of his back.

He takes a deep breath, in and out and in again. The air is crisp and clean here. There’s no smell of rot or blood, just the scent of the earth; of pine and elm and dirt. He sits down, closes his eyes. The rock is cold beneath him even through his jeans. He leans back on the rock, one arm cushioning his head, the other resting on his stomach and wonders how much time has passed since his hasty retreat from camp.

He opens his eyes and stares up at the sky, there’s not a single cloud, just a vast expanse of pale blue. His fingers tap impatiently against his sternum. Theo should be finished by now, right? Liam frowns. He doesn’t want to stroll back into camp and catch Theo mid-jerk. He should just stay here, make Theo come find him when he’s done. Liam sucks in a frustrated breath, lets it out loudly. His hand slips down lower, resting just above the hemline of his jeans, still tapping out an impatient beat.

He’s alone right now. No O’s, or Theo to bother him. It's just Liam and the trees and the sky. His fingers pause in their tapping as he bites his lip in thoughtful consideration. 

He might as well, right?

There might not be another chance for a while, and it might even keep him from having another wet dream anytime soon. His hand slips even lower, thumb caressing the button of his jeans, his other fingers scraping dryly against his zipper. He can feel himself growing hard at the thought of getting himself off. The last time had been weeks ago when he was in the shower at the hotel, it had been quick and satisfying.

He clumsily thumbs open his jeans, pushes them lower on his hips until the open triangle frames his dick. He slowly pulls himself out through the flap in his boxers, shivers as the cool morning air brushes over his exposed skin. He releases himself just long enough to spit into his hand, glides his slick palm up and down his cock.

He pulls his other hand out from beneath his head, trails it along his chest, flicks at raised nipples through the rough material of his shirt. He shivers again, but he’s no longer cold. He’s burning up, arousal prickling along every inch of his body.

He thinks of Hayden, though he hasn’t seen her in nearly a year and a half. He thinks of her because she’s the only person he’s ever dated, ever personally saw naked. He thinks of kissing her, of his hands on her body and her hands on him, but it doesn’t do anything for him.

He swipes his thumb along the slit of his cock and whimpers at the feeling. He tries to think of someone else; an actress, an actor, any of the countless people he’s been attracted to over the years. He fists his cock, thoughts spiraling from person to person and pumps his hand quickly, need rising in the pit of his stomach.

He settles on a faceless blur, focuses on the thought of someone else’s hands roaming across his body. Of blunt nails scraping through the trail of hair beneath his belly button and tweaking the sensitive buds of his nipples. He groans at the thought, his hand tightening around his cock. He’s so fucking close.

He uses his other hand to pull roughly at his hair and it makes him think of Theo. He knows it’s wrong, they’re friends and traveling companions, but he can’t stop himself from thinking about Theo’s fingers traveling across his body. Theo’s hand on his dick, Theo’s hand tugging his hair, making him lean his head back and expose his sensitive neck. Theo whispering into his skin, voice low and rough and thick with want—He bites forcefully into his bottom lip, tastes the copper tang of his own blood and comes whining low in his throat.

He lays there breathing hard, one hand still wrapped around his softening cock the other tangled in his hair and groans. “Damnit.”

“You done?”

Liam startles letting out an unattractive squeak, hands flailing as he tries to put himself away and roll over onto his stomach simultaneously.

 “What are you doing here,” He chokes, peeking down over the edge. His heart is a racehorse galloping through his chest, his face burning with mortification. God, he didn’t do anything stupid like say Theo’s name, did he?

Theo is leaning against the rock, arms crossed over his chest. Both of their bags are packed up and sitting on the ground beside him. Theo leans down to one of the bags and pulls out Liam’s canteen of water, without looking he tosses it up into the air. Liam fumbles it with his clean hand, almost drops it back down onto Theo’s head, and edges back onto the rock.

He sits there for a long moment, in the middle of the rock. Right where Theo can’t see him, and he can’t see Theo. His face is getting hotter and hotter, heart beating faster and faster. How long has Theo been standing there?

“I got here just as you finished,” Theo offers blandly like he’s discussing the weather and not Liam jerking off.  “Thought it would be pointless to turn around when you were basically done.”

Liam awkwardly opens his canister of water, it’s difficult since he’s not left-handed, and takes a long drink, before pouring some out onto his sticky hand.

“You’re one of those people that get off on seeing other people get off, aren’t you?” Liam grumbles, wiping his wet hand on the leg of his jeans and screwing the cap back onto his water bottle. He’s trying to deflect, push away his discomfort. He’s pretty sure Theo isn’t actually a voyeur. “You closet perv.”

“You got me,” Theo snorts out. Liam throws the canister over the ledge. Hears the metallic thwap of Theo catching it. “I wasn’t exactly trying to hide my presence you know, it’s not my fault you weren’t paying attention.”

“I was obviously distracted.”

 “You plan on coming down anytime soon?” The chimera asks, putting an unnecessary pause between  _coming_  and _down_. Liam can picture his smirk perfectly, the little shit.

Liam flops onto his back and closes his eyes. His jeans are still unbuttoned, whispers of the chilly air slipping through. It feels nice to his burning body. “Nope.”

* * *

 

They’ve been cautiously plucking their way around the bigger towns and suburbs for days now. Their bodies strung taut with anxiety and exhaustion. So, it’s nice when they finally slip further out into the countryside of Missouri. There’s a lightness in Liam’s step and a looseness about his shoulders. Even Theo looks less likely to commit murder, despite the hostile way he snaps: “For the love of god will you please stop humming.”

“I thought you were an atheist.”

Theo glowers at him, Liam can see his hand twitching at his side like he wants to punch Liam in the face and knock him out. Liam puffs his cheeks out but keeps his mouth closed. He remembers with perfect clarity the headache and tension in his jaw the last time Theo had knocked him out, even if it had been over a year ago. He’s surprisingly not up for a fight today.

He’s quiet for about a mile, but there’s only so much silence he can take before he wants to scratch off his skin in irritation.

“I’m bored,” He complains at the back of Theo’s head.

“Sounds like a  _you_ problem,” Theo shoots back without a moment’s hesitation, quippy as ever.

Liam rolls his eyes so hard he’s surprised Theo didn’t hear them move.     

“We should play a game.”

“No.”

“Come on,” Liam pleads, he’s going out of his mind with boredom. “We can play I spy or something, just for a little bit and then I’ll leave you alone.”

Theo stops walking and turns around to stare in vexation at Liam. “Liam, we’re in the middle of a field, the only thing you’re going to spy is this tall ass grass.” The chimera waves a hand around them like he’s not sure Liam has noticed it. Which is rude, Liam’s eyes work perfectly. He rolls them again just to prove it and also because now Theo can see him do it.

Liam, despite his irritation, has to admit that Theo has a point though. They’ve been trudging their way through what can only be someone’s large ass farm for over two hours now and as far as Liam can see there isn’t an end in sight yet. There’s not a tree or a bush or a road; just miles and miles of waist-high yellow grass and the sun slipping further to the west overhead.

“Fine, then just tell me about yourself.”

That pulls the chimera up short, his brows furrowing down; confusion clear on his face. “Like, what?”

“I don’t know, Theo,” Liam says with exasperation hands flinging out to his sides. “How about your favorite color? Your birthday? What type of candy you  _do_ like because you  _have_ to like something. We’ve known each other for years and yet I don’t know anything about you.”

Theo rolls his eyes, breath exhaling noisily from his nose. He doesn’t say anything else, just turns on foot and trods off.

Liam sighs, eyes closing briefly. He follows along quietly behind Theo, resigning himself to hours of silence when suddenly Theo starts talking. His voice is low like he’s worried someone else might hear him willingly divulging information about himself. “My favorite color is green; my birthday is November 23rd and… I like peppermint patties.”

“Those taste like toothpaste,” Liam says without thinking. He winces.  

“They taste better than those disgusting peanut butter things you hoard in your backpack every time we raid a store for supplies, and  _yes_ , I know about your little stash, you smell like peanut butter for days afterward.  _Every. Single. Time.”_

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Liam lies through his teeth.

Theo snorts. “Sure, you don’t.” He pauses, a thrum of nervousness coming from the usually blasé chimera. “Anything else you want to know or can we go back to being quiet?”

Liam has to stop himself from saying  _everything_ , though the word sits threateningly on his tongue. He gulps it down and says instead; “What did you want to be when you were younger?”

Theo looks over his shoulder at him, there’s a wry grin on his face. “You mean  _other_  than a murderous chimera?”

“No,” Liam huffs sarcastically. “Tell me all about how you knew since birth you were destined to be an asshole.”

Theo laughs, turning his head back to watch where he’s going even though there’s literally nothing for him to run in to except more grass. “I don’t know, I didn’t have all that much time to fantasize about normal careers.”

“There has to have been something,” Liam wheedles, curiosity eating away at him. “Astronaut? Rockstar? Can you sing?”

“A teacher,” Theo says hesitantly. “Maybe, a professor.”

“For what?”

Theo shrugs, “Biology. Chemistry… Science and math were the only subjects I was ever any good at, or cared about.”

Liam nods his head thoughtfully, he can see that. “Well, maybe when Scott and the rest of the Scooby gang save the world you can get a GED and go to college for a degree.” He grins, jogs up beside Theo and nudges him in the side with an elbow. “We can go to college together and you can help me pass all my labs.”

“As long as you help me pass the history courses.” Theo agrees, playing along.

“Deal,” Liam says decisively.

It’s just wishful thinking, but it’s better than facing the truth that the world they had always known was over. The thought sticks with Liam though, in the back of his mind. The thought that even when they do reach Beacon Hill things aren’t just going to suddenly be better again. The world isn’t going to be bustling with people running off to work, or wherever they need to go.  He’s not going to go off to college and get a degree in history like he’s always planned.

Instead, all of his lacrosse scholarships are useless now, the college admittance letters pointless. The only thing he’s going to be doing is trying not to die. It shouldn’t be too hard though. He’s had a lot of practice after all.

* * *

 

 

Liam’s stomach won’t stop growling, they haven’t eaten since the night before and he’s starving. He keeps thinking about cheeseburgers and how he’s never going to have one again which isn’t helping him in the least.

“You’re drooling.”

Liam startles, hand running across his mouth to wipe away any trace of saliva, but he doesn’t find any. He glares over at a smirking Theo. “I am not.”

Theo lifts a shoulder in a half shrug, “You looked seconds away from it.”

“I can’t help it, I’m starving,” He laments, rubbing a hand at his stomach. “I’m wasting away with every step we take, and I just realized I’m never going to have another In and Out burger.”

“How tragic.” Theo rolls his eyes.

“It is,” Liam grumbles at the unsympathetic chimera. He stares down at his stomach, hands still patting at it like it’ll make the growling stop. He can tell he’s gotten thinner, the last vestiges of his baby fat melting off over the course of their travels. Well, at least after this no one can call him Babywolf or Packpuppy anymore. He’s still not sure how Alec got out of having a nickname when the kid is a year younger than him.

“You look like you’re thinking too hard, now,” Theo says exasperatedly from beside him as they continue to walk.

“Why didn’t anyone ever call Alec names like Babywolf or Packpuppy?”

Theo looks like he regrets saying anything. Just rolls his eyes instead of answering and walks faster so that he’s no longer next to Liam.

“Wait, you didn’t—You didn’t answer my question! Theo!”

He runs after the chimera, nearly runs into him when the older boy suddenly stops and sniffs at the air.

“Think you can make a fire,” Theo asks out of nowhere.

“Yeah,” Liam says slowly, confusion lacing his tone. They don’t usually make a fire until the sun starts to set, and they still have hours of light left. 

“Good, get started.” Theo drops his bag to the ground and starts tugging off his shirt, his nipples immediately pebbling when the cool autumn air touches his skin.

Liam stares, mouth parted in bewilderment and then Theo starts unbuckling his belt, kicking off his shoes as he fumbles with the metal. Liam takes several steps back when he realizes how close they are, covers his eyes and squeaks out; “What the  _fuck_ are you doing?”

There’s a lack of movement and Liam just knows he’s receiving a look from Theo. He chances a peek through his fingers and yeah, there’s  _the look_.

“I’m going hunting.”

“Naked?”

Theo snorts, continues to pull down his pants. “You know there’s no point in covering your eyes if you’re just going to peek at me through your fingers.”

Liam closes the gap between his fingers and slams his eyes closed, face hot in embarrassment. “I—I’m not peeking!”

He hears the heavy material of Theo’s jeans fall onto the ground then there’s silence. Liam can’t help the image in his mind of Theo running naked off into the woods.  _Who does that?_

Something bumps against his thigh and Liam squawks in surprise, hands jerking away from his face as he stumbles back, falling hard to the ground. There’s a snort of amusement, familiar and yet completely different from what he’s used to hearing.

Liam sits up and glares, rubbing at the spot on his elbow where it had cracked painfully against the ground. The glare melts away into surprise when instead of Theo he comes face to face with a very large black wolf. 

“Theo,” Liam breathes, tone laced with amazement he’ll deny if Theo ever brings it up.

The wolf jerks its head, green eyes glittering with mirth. Liam thinks the wolf would smirk if it could.

“This is how you hunt,” Liam whispers, hands reaching out of their own accord. fingers tangling in the fur. It’s surprisingly soft. He rubs gently at the wolf’s neck, makes his way up to the large set of ears and scratches behind them. He doesn’t comment on the fact that Theo is pushing his head up into Liam’s hand, obviously enjoying the attention. “Why didn’t you ever tell me before?”

Liam’s hand stills atop the wolf’s head, his eyes narrowing. “Are you going hunting just so you don’t have to answer my question?”

The wolf slowly pulls back, Liam’s hands falling away from his fur as the wolf stands and trots off into the woods.

“You’re just full of non-answers today.” He supposes he can deal with that though if Theo brings him something to eat that isn’t squirrel.  He claps his hands together once in some weird semblance of self-encouragement and stands up to work on making a fire before the wolf returns.

* * *

 

Theo brings back a baby boar, it’s body clamped tightly between Theo’s sharp teeth. There’s a gash across his muzzle running up to his ear, where the piglet's mother had probably tried to fight Theo off to protect her young. Theo drops the little boar at Liam’s feet with an air of supreme satisfaction as if to say:  _Look at what a good hunter I am, I truly am a superior being._

Liam laughs, can’t resist reaching out and patting Theo on the head and saying in the most obnoxious voice he can muster. “What a good boy!”

Theo snorts disdainfully at him, nips at his still patting hand until Liam moves it away. The bite doesn’t hurt, it's more a playful warning than anything. Theo raises his head high and struts over to where his clothes lay in a heap in the dirt. Liam turns away, watches the fire wave with each blow of the wind.

He can hear the creaking and snapping of bones as Theo changes back into his human self, hears the shushing of clothes being slipped back on. He doesn’t look away from the flames until Theo lets out a small chuckle of amusement, “It’s safe now, you little bundle of growls.”

Liam purses his lips in annoyance. He doesn’t know if that nickname is because he has anger problems or because his stomach won’t stop begging for food. He turns to Theo just as the chimera is slipping on his shoes, ready to tell him off, but loses that train of thought when he sees the blood on Theo’s face, slipping down over his chin and spilling tiny droplets of red onto his dark blue shirt.

 “Are you okay?” He asks, eyeing the long gash on Theo’s face.

“I’m fine, it’ll heal.” Theo walks over and sits next to Liam in front of the fire, pulling the baby pig towards them to gut and roast. He smiles smugly at Liam. “How do you feel about boar?”

“I feel good about anything that isn’t—”

“Squirrel,” Theo cuts him off with a roll of his eyes. “I know, I know.”

Liam rolls his eyes right back, grabs his bag and digs through it until he finds one of his mostly shredded T-shirts and pulls it out. He rips it in two, stuffs one half back into his bag and then turns his attention back to Theo who’s watching him curiously.

“What are you doing?”

Liam doesn’t answer, just reaches out and uses the scrap of his shirt to clean the blood off Theo’s face. Theo stills under his hands, mouth closing with a click of his teeth. He doesn’t move until Liam pulls his hand back to toss the bloody rag into the fire. Theo opens his mouth to talk but once again Liam derails him, bringing his hand back to Theo’s now clean face and gripping his jaw lightly.

Black veins travel towards his fingertips, dyeing them with pain. The veins spread out across his palm and up his wrist. He watches as the wound on Theo’s face knits itself back together, the skin closing, turning a deep pink like a scar and then gradually grow lighter until it fades from sight.

Liam brushes his thumb along the newly healed skin, tracing the line it had made from Theo’s ear to the corner of his mouth. He leaves his thumb there, just at the corner. Theo’s lips are slightly parted, soft puffs of breath ghosting over Liam’s fingers. He wonders what Theo’s lips feel like. His thumb moves of its own volition, brushing the pad against the plush flesh of Theo’s lip, there for only a second and then gone.

His hand falls away as he swallows over the sudden lump in his throat. “Are you done?”

“What,” Theo’s voice is quiet, just a notch above a whisper, and confused.

Liam nods at the baby boar, “Are you done with it?”

Theo glances down at where his claws are digging into the piglet’s fat. “Yeah.”

“What,” Liam asks when he notices Theo watching him from the corner of his eye.

Theo looks back at the pig, shoulders hunching towards his ears as he pokes it through with a stick to place over the fire. “Thanks.”

It’s the first time Liam’s ever heard Theo say that word without sarcasm or malicious inflection.

“Yeah,” Liam stutters standing up to move away from the fire, suddenly feeling much too warm as the realization of what he had done finally sets in. “No, problem.”

* * *

 

They wrap up what’s left of the baby boar to eat later that night when they actually stop to make camp. They don’t talk as they slip their bags back on. The silence isn’t tense, but it’s not easy either; it feels loaded, like there are things that need to be said, need to be discussed, but neither of them is really willing to broach what it is or even acknowledge its existence.

Theo doesn’t wait for him, just starts traipsing through the woods again like they never even stopped.

* * *

 

They stop to make camp just outside of a tiny Podunk town in the middle of nowhere. The woods are thin here, trees spaced out, so the area feels less enclosed, more open and breathable. They’ve been gallivanting across farms and through acres of woods back and forth all day. Some of the farms still had horses and cows grazing in the fields, owners long gone. Liam had suggested cowboying up but had been shot down pretty quickly. He thinks Theo has something against horses because the chimera refused to go anywhere near them. Liam had only gotten a murderous glare as a response when he had asked about it though, so that was confirmation enough.

The sun is just starting to slip behind the trees, casting long shadows over the land. Theo’s building a fire as Liam sets out his sleeping bag next to a tree so that he has something to lean against. He grabs his bag and fumbles around inside of it for the puzzle book and a pen. It looks how Liam feels; like hell. The corners of the book are fraying, the paper curling from ink blotches and repeatedly being stuffed inside of his bag. The pitiful thing is falling apart.

“There are only two crossword puzzles left, “Liam says yawning widely as he leans back against the huge oak tree. He carefully flips through the book one last time, just to make sure they haven’t accidentally skipped one. He’s honestly surprised it lasted them as long as it has.

“We need to hit up another store soon anyway, we’re running low on supplies.” Theo stokes the fire. “We can get another book then.”

“And more clothes,” Liam says plucking at the threadbare long sleeve shirt he’s wearing. It does little to protect from the chill in the air. He releases the shirt and turns his head to face Theo “Do you think we’ll be back in California before Christmas?”

“If we keep up a steady pace, we should be,” Theo shrugs. “Why, worried Santa won’t be able to find you out here?”

Liam nods slowly, then frowns when the rest of Theo’s words finally catch up to him. “You’re such a dick, Theo.”

Theo gives him a smarmy grin over his shoulder. “Yeah.”

Liam rolls his eyes and pulls the puzzle book closer to his face, so he can read the words out loud. Theo makes his way over and settles’s in next to him, their shoulder’s brushing. Liam leans into the warmth of Theo’s shoulder and prays to whoever is listening that the chimera doesn’t notice. He clears his throat awkwardly, “Okay, so the last name of the author that wrote the book Salem’s Lot.”

Liam’s eyes flicker over the corresponding boxes and counts out four, “It’s four letter’s long.”

“King,” Theo says easily, peering down at the puzzle book. “I’ve read that book like five times.”

“You would you little psychopath.” Liam snorts.

Theo pinches his thigh roughly in response, causing Liam to let out a yelp of pain. Theo chuckles and pats at the smarting patch of skin. He doesn’t move his hand away afterward, lets it stay there, resting around the middle of Liam’s thigh. It feels like a brand through Liam’s jeans; large and impossibly hot. Liam doesn’t say anything, just shifts nervously wondering if Theo will realize and move it on his own.

He doesn’t, just nods his head down at the book and says, “Are you going to write it down or not?”

“Oh,” Liam says stupidly. “Um, yeah.”

He fumbles the pen, nearly dropping it in his haste to write out the answer. Theo makes a comment about how his handwriting hasn’t improved at all, but all Liam can think about is the chimera’s hand and how his thumb is absently rubbing back and forth across his pant leg.

* * *

 

Liam sleepily lifts his head and blinks blurrily at the side of Theo’s face. The chimera’s eyes are closed, head tilted back against the trunk of the Oak tree, mouth slightly parted as he breathes deeply. Liam frowns. He remembers Theo falling asleep halfway through the puzzle, head lulling onto Liam’s shoulder.  Can remember the soft puffs of breath against his neck and the realization that the chimera was drooling onto his shirt. Then nothing. Apparently, he had followed Theo into the sleep world; dozing off when he should have been up to keep watch.

Liam shifts, rubbing at his tired eyes. The birds twitter loudly above him in the tree and at first, he thinks that’s what woke him up, but then he hears it. The  _rustle, snap, crunch_  of leaves and twigs. The world around them is just starting to dawn, casting everything in a dull blue light, but he can make out large shadowy forms limping through the stationary silhouettes of the trees. Liam’s heart stops beating, his breath stuttering in his lungs when he realizes that it’s all around them.

Liam shoots up to his feet, a terrified whine making its way out of his throat. He kicks Theo several times before the boy open’s his eyes and growls, “What are you do—”

He stops, eyes going wide as he no doubt hears the lumbering foot falls surrounding them. He jerks upright onto his feet, eyes glowing gold as he takes in their surroundings. Theo’s nails lengthen into claws, teeth sharpening into fangs.

“Fuck,” Liam breathes as the area around them gradually starts to brighten, literally shedding light on their situation. “This is bad.”

The smell of rotting flesh and blood poisons the air around them, mixes with the thick scent of their own fear until Liam feels like he’s choking.

_They’re going to die._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know I said this was only going to be 5 chapters, but I seem to have lost control of the story and as of current I have no idea how long it's going to be. Thank you for your continued support and as usual, any constructive criticism is welcome.
> 
> -I wanted to make this chapter as light hearted as I could while remaining in the realm of plausibility because the next chapter is not going to be pretty. 
> 
> -Also, sorry for the cliffhanger, but it has to be done at least once.


	5. Ending at the Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to apologize in advance for this chapter. 
> 
> CHAPTER WARNING don't read if not in the proper headspace to deal with:  
> Death  
> Violence  
> Gore  
> And A SHIT TON OF ANGST

His heart is beating too fast in his chest, breath stuttering in his lungs. He doesn’t know what to do.

“Don’t panic,” Theo demands, eyes searching out any possible escape routes, body tense. “And don’t do anything stupid.”

“Like what?” Liam asks because honestly, any move he makes right now is going to be a stupid one.

“Shit,” Theo hisses. He steps back, head tilting up. "There!" Theo turns around and holds out his hands. “The tree, just get in the tree, hurry!”

Liam steps into Theo’s clasped hands, lets the chimera hoist him up high enough to grab onto the lowest branch way above their heads just as the dead start closing in around them. He pulls himself up onto it, the bark scratching his hands and face. Liam wraps his legs tightly around the branch and leans down, holding out his hand for Theo to grab onto and pull himself up into the tree as well. Theo takes his hand tightly and starts to pull himself up.

“Fuck,” He hears Theo curse, and Liam nearly has a heart attack when he sees that two O’s have one of Theo’s legs. They pull him down, Theo’s sweaty hand slipping from Liam’s as he crashes to the ground.

“Theo!” Liam doesn’t even hesitate before jumping out of the tree, doesn’t care that there must be over thirty walking corpses milling around waiting to sink their teeth into them. He lands on one of the O’s backs, claws jabbing deep into the back of its skull where the head meets the neck and then rolls to the ground.

Theo is on the ground on his back, pushing at the other O, boots digging into the rotting sternum as he evades the snapping jaws of the hungry dead woman. Liam can hear the creaking of her rib cage as it presses in, breaking beneath the force of her moving forward and Theo kicking her back, blood spills down Theo’s boots and soaks into the hem of his pants. Liam jerks the woman backward, dragging her down into the dirt and slams his foot into her skull before she can try to get up again.

He doesn’t have time to think about brain matter and blood coating his shoes before Theo is jerking him to the side away from another O. There’s so many. Too many.

They’re not going to make it out of this.

“I told you not to do anything stupid,” Theo growls.

“I haven’t yet!”

“Jumping down here was stupid, Liam!”

Liam wants to turn his head and glare at Theo, but they’re both too busy. Honestly, they shouldn’t even be arguing right now, but they wouldn’t be them if they didn’t. And, if Liam’s being truthful, it’s helping him not panic. The banter is familiar and oddly calming even as Liam claws his way through a throng of the walking dead.

“I was saving your life, you asshole!” Liam yells, knocking several hands from his shirt and rolling to the side. He picks up one of the longer sticks they had gathered for the fire and jabs it through the eye of a surprisingly quick O, it falls and two more take its place. “Fuck, they’re everywhere!”

“Don’t think about how many there are,” Theo advises, he’s getting farther away from Liam, there has to be a least twenty O’s separating them. “Just kill them.”

“That professional advice?”

He hears a bark of laughter mixed in with a grunt of exertion and a large cracking sound as Theo smashes two O’s heads together. “Yeah, it is!”

So, Liam listens. He doesn’t think about it, just dances around the woods, fighting and evading and fighting some more. Liam swipes his claws at another O, catches it across the face, knocking it to the ground, he doesn’t have to do much else as another O tramples over it smashing in the head with a strappy high-heeled foot.

Liam stumbles back over a patch of protruding roots, hits a tree and quickly swings around it to the other side only to immediately regret it. _Fuck, that’s one big dead guy_.

He tries to lunge back but a mutilated fist wraps in the fabric of his shirt and pulls him forward. Liam struggles to release himself, claws digging helplessly into rotting flesh, trying to literally break the hold on him.

Liam sticks out a foot, shoe pressing into the large swollen stomach of the O as he tries to keep from being pulled in closer. The O snaps it’s cracked yellow teeth at Liam, it’s milky eyes staring hungrily into Liam’s terrified ones.

There’s breath on the back of his neck, low and rattling. Liam remembers the O with the high heels had been following him, flinches when he realizes that death is literally breathing down his neck. He turns his head just in time to witness Theo tackle the dead woman closing in on him to the ground with a loud angry growl. Theo and the O roll twice before Theo pins it to the ground.

Liam turns back to his own foe and stops trying to tug his arms free, instead he pushes forward hoping to knock the monstrous beast to the ground.

He just barely succeeds, pushing with all his strength until the O falls back into the dirt with a heavy thud. He claws at its eyes, fingers digging in as deep as they can until the O finally stops moving beneath him. Liam sucks in a deep breath, eyes stinging at the volatile smell all around him.

He rolls off the O and stands quickly, eyes darting around the campsite for any other sign of a threat, but there’s nothing left for Liam to fight. Theo’s just pulling his hand out of the back of an O’s head, Liam watches as it drops to the ground. It’s just the two of them again. They’re both breathing hard, exhausted and amped from the surprise fight.

They’re alive though.

“Are you okay?” Liam asks after several long moments of them just listening to the surrounding woods and staring at one another.

“I’m fine,” Theo responds curtly, shoulders stiff. There’s an undercurrent of tension rippling through the air like static electricity. Liam knows that the smart move would be to just listen to Theo, to take his word for it even though they both know the chimera is lying. Liam can smell the waves of distress hanging around Theo even over the pungent odor of rotting flesh and blood.

“Yeah, I’m calling bullshit,” Liam states loudly, arms twitching at his sides, a reflex to cross them intimidatingly over his chest. He has to physically restrain himself. He’s covered in ichor and the last thing he wants to do is smear it all over himself even more. “What’s wrong? I mean I know it was a pretty close call, but we’re fine.”

Theo shakes his head and moves around Liam, carefully picking his way through the litter of bodies on the ground. “Don’t worry about it, Liam.”

“Where are you going,” Liam asks, glancing over to where their backpacks are still sitting next to the ashen remains of their fire.

“River,” Theo answers. His voice is strange, distant even though he’s only a few feet away. Like his mind is roaming around somewhere else. “Need to wash this off.”

Liam watches him disappear through the trees in the direction of the river. To his left the sun is slowly rising higher, the light catching on the puddles of congealing blood around his feet. He doesn’t feel dizzy or nauseous, he just feels frustrated that there’s blood beneath his claws and bits of skin sticking to his forearm. Liam guesses even people like him can get used to it. He doesn’t like what that says about him.

\---

Theo’s standing in the water, fully clothed when Liam finally reaches the river. The older boy looks ridiculous as he waddles farther and farther out into the water.

“Why didn’t you just take off your clothes,” Liam inquires from the shoreline. He’s toeing off his shoes, winces when the cold-water laps at his feet, soaking into his hole riddled socks.

“They’re dirty too,” Theo’s says, voice clipped. “Two birds one stone.”

And yeah, Liam can see the sense in that. Also, who wants to fight while completely naked, unless it’s the fun kind of naked fighting, but that doesn’t really have any context here.

Liam stares down at his clothes. Yeah. They’re just as disgusting as his hands. He sighs and steps into the frigid water. The ground is slimy; it sticks to the material of his socks. Liam wrinkles his nose in distaste.

The water makes his skin burn, but dealing with possible hypothermia is better than being covered in innards any day, plus it’s not like the hypothermia will last long with his enhanced werewolf healing. Theo’s even farther out now, looks calm and collected, like he’s having a pleasant swim, despite it being the middle of November.

“Aren’t you cold?” Liam fights back a shiver as the water reaches his belly button, soaking into his shirt and making it cling uncomfortably to his goose-bump riddled skin. “This water is freezing, Theo.”

“It’s not so bad,” Theo says quietly. He’s staring at Liam weirdly, eyes wide above the dark blue of the water lapping at his chin. Liam has no idea what to make of the expression, he thinks maybe Theo’s mad at him, or disappointed. He’ll take the former over the latter any day.

“Are you mad at me or something,” Liam asks before he can stop himself, teeth chattering between the words. “I know I fucked up, it was my turn to keep watch and I fell asleep. We made it out okay though like we always do.” He gives Theo a pained smile, tries to turn around the weird mood that’s fallen over them. “Even if we are completely covered in zombie innards.”

 “You were almost bitten,” Theo’s voice is low.

Liam sighs, he wants to run his fingers through his hair, but they’re still gross. “Yeah, _almost_.”

“That _thing_ was seconds away from ripping into the back of your neck, Liam,” Theo says, voice slowly rising, like he’s building up to something important. “You could have died.”

Theo’s mouth opens and closes twice more like he wants to say something else. Instead, he gives Liam a hard look, sucks in a deep breath and disappears completely beneath the water.

“Yeah, but I didn’t,” Liam mumbles to himself, staring at the empty space where Theo had been. He watches the ripples across the dark surface and thinks about apologizing, changes his mind when Theo resurfaces near the shore and gets out of the water without ever looking back. Liam watches him leave as he shivers in the freezing lake.

His eyes drop back down to the water, ripples are spanning out away from him with every tremble of his body. He _had_ been really close to biting the proverbial dust, but Theo, like always had saved him. He wants to apologize, and thank, and punch the chimera for being an asshole all at once.

Liam sucks in a deep breath, hopes the cold-water won't give him an even bigger headache than the one that’s already beginning to form at the back of his head and plunges himself beneath the chilly recesses to wash the clumps of gunk out of his hair.

\---

 

Theo’s already changed into another pair of clothes by the time Liam slowly finds his way into the new camp just a little away from where they had originally been. The chimera’s wet clothes are settled over a low branch, a new fire built and roaring beneath them. It hisses periodically as cold droplets of water roll from the fabric and into the flames. Liam wants to crawl inside the ring of fire and curl up into a ball. He’s freezing.

“Hurry up and change,” Theo tells him, holding out a somewhat clean set of clothes.

“Thanks, mom,” Liam snorts taking the pro-offered clothing. Theo ignores him.

Liam slowly peels off his jeans, the burns on his thighs and waist already healing from where the material has chaffed against his skin. He turns away from Theo to tug off his boxers and shirt. Starts to step into the dry pair of underwear when he remembers he’s wearing wet socks.

Behind him, Theo laughs quietly. Liam throws a glare at him over his shoulder as he awkwardly hops around pulling at his socks. He’s not really mad though, more thankful that whatever weird mood Theo had been in before has left.

“Hurry up and get dressed, you’re blinding me,” Theo teases.

“Then stop looking,” Liam snipes back without any real bite to his words, he’s far too relieved.

“Can’t help it, I’m part wolf and that’s a full moon.” Theo gives a mocking little howl to punctuate his sentence. Liam flushes in embarrassment and ends up tearing one of his socks in half in his haste to get them off, but finds he doesn’t really care. He’ll just steal one of Theo’s.

Theo’s still smiling when Liam throws his wet clothes over the branch next to his and plops down in the dead grass beside the fire to warm up.

They sit in companionable silence for a long time. Liam with his arms resting on his knees, hands stretching out towards the warmth of the flames. Theo with his head tilted back, elbows digging into the dirt as he watches gray cloud after gray cloud roll past overhead.

“Hey,” Theo murmurs, voice rough as he pushes himself up off his back. “Hand me one of your maps.”

Liam reaches for his backpack automatically. “Why?”

Theo shrugs. “My maps are starting to fall apart.”

Liam frowns but digs through his bag anyway until he finds one of the two maps he has. It’s completely unused though the edges are bent and a little crinkled.

“A pen too.” Theo takes the map Liam holds out towards him and waits for Liam to dig around for a pen.

“What are you doing,” Liam askes curiously, handing over a pen.

“I’m mapping out the rest of the way to Beacon Hills.” Theo spreads the map across the forest floor and gives it a hard stare, eyes darting around the paper, searching for the best possible route. “We still have a few states left between us.”

Liam nods, but he doesn’t really get it. They’ve been fine with just winging it this entire time, only checking Theo’s maps when they thought they were getting too far off course.Liam glances back to his right where just through the trees lay the pile of bodies. Maybe, Theo wanted to plan it out better so that they wouldn’t fall into situations like earlier this morning. It was the kind of thing that Theo would do. Self-preservation, except it extended to Liam now too.

Liam turns back to the chimera, watches as he taps the paper with his pen in several different places, circling small towns and drawing lines. His hair is longer than ever before, it curls wetly near his shoulders framing his face, making him look paler. Liam wants to reach out and touch it.

He doesn’t.

Instead, he clears his throat. “Theo.”

Theo hums at him, doesn’t lift his gaze from the map, pen still tapping and scribbling away.

“Thank you,” Liam says softly, pulling his knees closer to his chest. “For saving me.”

Theo’s hands still on the map. Slowly, the chimera looks up. His green eyes look oddly bright as he stares up at Liam. He licks his lips, drops his gaze to where Liam’s hands twist together nervously before rising back to meet his eyes. His expression is strange, unreadable to even Liam who’s spent months alone with the guy. His voice is deep and quiet when he says; “Yeah.”

They don’t talk for a long time after that. Liam listens to the scratch of pen on paper and the _crackle, pop, hiss_ of the fire. He focuses on the scent of burning wood and the river water clinging to their hair, and not on the blood and rot that seeps in around them tainting everything.

When the sun starts to dip down low behind the trees and night starts to settle in, Liam rummages through Theo’s bag for what’s left of the protein bars and then pulls out the puzzle book from his own bag. He pointedly sticks the power bar into Theo’s hand and steals the pen. “Eat, dumbass.”

Theo grumbles something unflattering at him that Liam cheerfully ignores. The chimera breathes deeply and toys with the wrapping of the power bar, but doesn’t open it. “What type of puzzle are we doing tonight?”

Liam flips through the pages, bypassing all the ones they had finished, or given up on because not even Theo knew the answers. He stops on the first unanswered page he comes across and reads the title with a snort; “Oh, good, it’s science terms”

Theo perks up, Liam has to resist the urge to laugh at the nerd. He just barely succeeds.

“What’s the first clue?”

Liam clears his throat. “What is the name of the cell’s control center?”

Liam’s eyes skitter across the page, “It’s seven lette—”

“The nucleus,” Theo answers immediately.

Liam writes it down as Theo spells it out for him. He grins at the yellowing paper. “You nerd,” he murmurs fondly before reading the next clue out loud for Theo.

Theo answers several more question’s before he finally hesitates, eyebrows drawing down in confusion. He makes Liam read it two more times before shaking his head, “I don’t know.”

Liam glances over at him and frowns, putting the puzzle book down. “You look pretty tired.

Theo shakes his head, “No, I’m fine, just keep reading the clues.”

“I’m not going to screw up again, Theo.” Liam huffs, anger and guilt clawing its way up his throat and settling like ash on the back of his tongue. He swallows thickly, leans forward to poke at the flames of the fire with a small log. “Go to sleep.”

The chimera’s shoulders droop. “Yeah, okay.”

Liam watches as Theo slowly rises to his feet, crosses over to his backpack and unhooks the tattered old sleeping bag attached to it. Theo rolls it out, on the opposite side of the fire from Liam, and he’s surprised. They haven’t slept so far apart in well over a month now.

“Night,” Liam grunts. Theo nods climbing into his sleeping bag and turns away, leaving Liam staring at the back of his head.

Liam tries not to feel hurt.

He fails.

\---

Theo’s only been asleep for maybe half an hour when Liam’s eye catches on the unopened protein bar, it’s sitting beneath the folded-up map, a corner of the silvery wrapping just barely peeking out and shimmering in the light of the fire. Liam frowns, leans over to grab both the map and the bar. He glances across the fire to where Theo is sleeping and glares, he stuffs both into his own backpack angrily and zips it up. He’ll be having a word with the infuriating chimera come morning. He can’t just go a full day without eating, supernaturally enhanced or not, it’s not healthy, not when they burn so many calories in a single day.

Liam sucks in an angry breath and freezes. The smell of rot and decay and bad blood clings to everything they own, clings to the woods, and the cities and to life itself, but this is different. Something crisp and freshly coppery; like a newly opened wound.

He glances down at himself, tugs up his sleeves and the legs of his jeans to examine his arms and legs carefully for any lacerations, or leeches from the river, that may have gone unnoticed.

It’s not coming from me, he realizes with a start.

He jerks his head up to look at where Theo is sound asleep. He doesn’t care if he’s loud, or if he wakes up the sleeping chimera up as he hurries to his feet and crashes down next to the boy. Theo jerks awake the minute Liam touches him, eyes wild and confused.

“What is it—”

Liam ignores him, follows the scent of blood to Theo’s left arm and pulls up the sleeve before he can be stopped. Theo pushes him away, staggering to his own feet and backing away from Liam, but it’s too late.

Liam stares in horror at Theo, who has his own eyes closed in resignation. There’s a cloth tightly bound around Theo’s forearm drenched in fresh blood, small droplets running off and down Theo’s wrist to the tip of his fingers where they fall and soak into the earth.

Liam must have made a sound because Theo’s eyes snap open and immediately find his. There’s fear in those dark green eyes, there and gone in a second as Theo’s face shutters. Liam takes a jerky step towards him, only stopping when Theo growls out, “Don’t.”

“You, is it, did you…” Liam has no idea how to make the stream of thoughts running through his head into words. Theo solves his problem.

“It’s a bite,” He says like it’s no big deal. Like he’s not currently dying from the inside out as the infection courses through his veins. Like, in a day or two he isn’t going to be one of the living dead instead of Theo.

Liam’s mouth keeps opening and closing without any words coming out. What can he even say?

 _It’s going to be okay?_ They both knew that was a lie.

 _I’m sorry?_ What purpose would that even serve?

 _You don’t deserve this?_ Liam wouldn’t be lying. The old Theo? Yeah, he deserved this, he deserved this a thousand times over, but not _this Theo_. Not the Theo he brought back from Hell, and who helped them fight. Not the Theo that’s been the only constant in his life for months. Not the Theo that… That he… Fuck. _Just, not Theo._

Liam startles at the sound of a cloth ripping, eyes shooting back up to Theo from where they had fallen to stare at the blood speckled dirt next to the chimera’s feet again. Theo’s ripping a long strip off the bottom of his shirt to redress the wound. Liam turns on heel, stalks over to his bag where the half-filled canteen of water sits, grabs it and stalks back over to Theo.

He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t even growl when Theo tries to jerk away from his hands. Just gives the chimera a dark look and purposely grabs Theo’s injured arm, holds it out to the side and pulls the sleeve up higher so that he can pour the water over the wound without it soaking into Theo’s clothes.

The chimera hisses in pain as soon as the freezing water touches his skin. Liam refuses to think about how hot Theo feels to the touch. Refuses to think about the fever that sets in after being bitten. Refuses to think about anything other than taking care of Theo’s arm and making the chimera go back to sleep for a few more hours. They have a long journey ahead of them tomorrow.

\---

Theo’s face is red with fever, his skin glistening with sweat. Liam can see it clinging to the chimera’s brow. His eyes shift in and out of focus as he trails along behind Liam at a sedated pace. They stop several times so that Theo can reorient himself and take long pulls of water.

“For fuck's sake,” Theo growls after the fourth stop in two hours, clenching the water canteen with shaky hands. “Just leave me, Dunbar.”

“No.”

_It’s not an argument._

“You’re being stupid,” Theo grunts out.

“No.”

_It’s not a discussion._

_The answer is no because Liam is not leaving Theo behind. No matter what the asshole says._

“Look, I’m dying,” Theo says reasonably, eyes pleading for Liam to understand.

_Even if he’s telling the truth._

Liam shakes his head, but Theo continues talking, “And I’m slowing you down. You need to get back to Beacon Hills, back to your family and to your pack. Stop worrying about me, damn it!”

Liam sucks in a deep breath, annoyance shifting beneath his skin. He shoots Theo a piercing look, asks clearly, “Are you done?”

He receives no answer.

“Okay, then, stand up and walk.”

There’s a tense stare off in which neither of them are inclined to lose. And then, Theo stands up. He wobbles, briefly, on his feet, finds his balance and falls back in line beside Liam.

Liam is careful to walk slower; to be ready in case Theo needs a helping hand even if the chimera’s too proud to ask for it. He's not leaving Theo. 

\---

They stop to make camp, not for the night, but just for a few hours. Liam says it’s because he’s hungry, but really, it’s because Theo’s lips have slowly started to turn blue, the skin under his eyes looking more and more bruised as he gasps for breath. Liam’s doing everything he can to not stop breathing himself from sheer panic. Theo is slowly dying before his very eyes and he doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know what to say. Theo’s made several raspy jokes, but Liam hasn’t even cracked a smile despite them actually being funny. He doesn’t want to sugar coat this, doesn’t want Theo making light of this. It’s not okay.

“Liam, stop.”

“Shut up, Theo,” Liam growls, but he’s not angry with the chimera. He’s angry with himself and with the world and with Scott for making them leave Beacon Hills when they did. He’s angry Theo’s dying and that this is the only thing he can do to help. He so fucking angry because he’s terrified.

Weak hands shove at him, trying to dislodge his grip on Theo’s neck. Liam continues to ignore him. Instead, he’s watching as black lines travel up Theo’s neck towards his hand and then up his own forearm to disappear beneath his sleeve. He has to grit his teeth against the onslaught of pain.

“You’re going to hurt yourself, Liam,” Theo’s rasps quietly. “I’m already dying.” He wraps a feverish hand around Liam’s wrist and squeezes weakly. “Stop, now.”

Liam stops taking his pain, but he doesn’t move his hand away. His head falls forward hair falling into his face. He doesn’t want Theo to see the guilt in his eyes, the heartache.

“It’s okay, Little Wolf.”

It’s really, really not.

Liam wants to sit in the dirt and cry, but he can’t. He has to be strong, not for himself, but for Theo.  And, he will. Even if it breaks him inside, he will because this is all his fault. Theo had been bitten when he tackled that O to the ground, the one that had been seconds away from ripping into the back of Liam’s neck.

He can’t stop his mouth from bringing the words into the light, “This is my fault.”

Theo shakes his head, “No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is,” Liam yells pulling away from him. “I fell asleep on watch and I—I wasn’t careful during the fight. You got bit because of me!”

“It’s not your fault Liam, those zombies would have surrounded us regardless of whether or not you fell asleep.” Theo sucks in a deep breath, his chest rattles. “And, it was my choice to save you.”

Liam hates the way his voice sounds when he asks; “Why aren’t you angry?”

“What will it accomplish?” Theo leans his head back against a tree, eyes closing. “It won’t change that I’ve been bitten, it won’t save my life.”

“But—but—”

“I don’t want an argument as a last conversation, Liam,” Theo says tiredly and all the fight goes out of Liam. 

They sit there in silence for hours, Theo dozing in and out of sleep. Liam watching over him, claws digging further and further into his palms with every wheezing breath. 

 “You didn’t eat anything,” Theo chokes out when Liam stands up and holds a hand out to help the chimera to his feet. “I thought you were hungry.”

“Changed my mind,” Liam says, doesn’t care if the older boy catches him in the lie.

Theo takes his hand and pulls himself up to his feet, “Right.”

Liam doesn’t let go of him, even when Theo gives him a wary look. Instead, he holds tight to the burning hand as they shuffle along beside one another.

\---

Theo gasps quietly, lips bloody. “Just keep walking.”

“No,” Liam says, he can’t stop his lips from trembling as he stares down at Theo. He doesn’t want to leave him; he doesn’t want to see Theo change into one of those things either. He thinks maybe he should be brave enough to do what needs to be done, but the thought of hurting Theo, of _ending him_ , guts Liam. He isn’t brave enough, or strong enough, he can’t do it.

_This isn’t fair!_

Anger coursed through Liam; sharp and volatile. Theo smiles, the ends of his mouth shaky as he tries to hold them in place.

“Don’t be scared,” He breathes out because of course, he knows that that's what Liam is feeling. Of course, Theo understands that the anger building inside of Liam is only a reaction to the fear of Theo dying, to the fear of Liam being left all alone. 

"I'm not scared," Liam says petulantly, hands shaking at his sides. 

"Yes you are," Theo starts to laugh but it turns into wet cough as he chokes. 

Liam watches in horror as Theo doubles over, fingers digging deep into the hard earth. Blood and a tar black substance that Liam can only think of as _rot_ coats the forest floor. “ _Please_ … _Go_ …”

It’s the please that does it.

That single word rips something out of Liam and suddenly he feels like he’s on autopilot. Like he’s completely lost the reins to his own body. He takes one step back his eyes never leaving Thoe. Then he takes another step, then another, and then he’s turning around and running as fast and far away as his feet will take him. Theo’s voice echoing in his ears.

_Please._

_Please._

_Please… Go._

He runs until he can’t breathe. Until his lungs burn and his muscles ache and plead for him to stop running, but he doesn’t. He can’t. If he stops—if even hesitates for a single second, he’ll turn around. He’ll go back to Theo and he can’t do that. He can't face whatever he left behind, whatever Theo has become. 

So, Liam keeps running.

He doesn’t know when he’ll stop, he doesn't know if he ever wants to. 

 

\---

Liam doesn’t know where he is, just knows the air here is frigid. The sky overhead rolls with thick gray clouds that threaten to open at any minute and drench him.

He’s tired and cold, his legs feel like lead as he shambles down the darkening length of the high way. There are no cars on this road. No dead. No Theo.

Just Liam.

\---

The wood’s wet from the continuous downpour. Liam’s lucky if it’ll even start to smoke at this point, but he’s too stubborn to just give in without even trying. So, he gathers the driest branches he can find, and gathers up leaves closest to the trunks of the trees. He settles down under his crappy little shelter and gets to work.

It feels like hours have passed when finally, a few of the dryer leaves start to smoke and catch fire. He kindles it with a few twigs and branches. Liam opens his mouth, ready to brag about his success, numb fingers stretching towards the tiny flames he made, but there’s no one to brag to. No one to send a smug smile at while he gestures to the fire he created. For the first time in months, Liam is completely and utterly alone.

He pulls his hands away from the fire, runs them through his greasy hair, tugs on the ends of it in frustration. There’s no snarky quip about his appearance, no jibes about him looking more and more like a beach bum or a hippy. Liam let’s go of his hair and covers his face. His hands smell like dirt and smoke and like Theo.

“Fuck,” Liam whispers into his palms, eyes burning. The fire is slowly starting to die, dwindling down to nothing, but smoldering embers. Darkness is creeping in around him, the cold bite of November following it. The night is quiet without the crackling fire, without Theo’s constant complaints and low laughter; without his comforting heartbeat.

 It’s so suffocatingly quiet.

Shivers wrack Liam’s body, not all of them from the chill. His vision blurs as the hot tears that have been threatening to fall since he abandoned Theo finally spill over onto his freezing cheeks.

He lets himself break into pieces.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he sobs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off: The shoe had to drop. It's a zombie!Au. However, I do promise that the next chapter will make up for this one. So, just hold tight because the story isn't over yet. 
> 
> Second: How many of you saw that coming?
> 
> Come rant at/with me about Thiam on Tumblr


	6. I'll Follow You Into The Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING:  
> There is the threat of non-con/rape towards the end of this chapter.  
> HOWEVER, there is no actual non-con/rape. 
> 
> OTHER WARNINGS:  
> Angsty and dark as fuck  
> Grief  
> Loneliness 
> 
> Do not read if not in the proper headspace to deal with these triggers.

_“Friendship is unnecessary. Like philosophy, like art…_

_It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things_

_Which give value to survival.”_

_-C. S. Lewis_

It’s been two days without Theo, two days of Liam wandering around between the lone expanse of highway and the encroaching woods; lost in more ways than one. He hasn’t seen a signal road sign or travel marker in the two days of his travel, then again, he hasn’t really had the presence of mind to look for one. Liam hasn’t cared to know where he is or if he’s even traveling in the correct direction anymore. So, he’s more than a little surprised when after hours of walking he spots one, a sign. It’s broad metal face coated with a fine layer of dirt like a hidden beacon of hope.

At first, he thinks maybe he’s imagining it, but the closer he draws to the sign the more realistic it gets. The more hope blooms in his chest. He stops just beneath the sign, on hand hesitantly reaching up to wipe the dirt, he’s afraid it might all just turn to sand like a terrible mirage.

 **Welcome to Platte City,** the sign reads. A huff of relief presses past Liam’s lips. He shrugs off his backpack and pulls out one of the maps. He drops to his knees, ignoring the brief flare of pain in his bones, and spreads the map out across the gravel so that he can pinpoint his location. It’s only after he has the map laid out before him that he realizes it’s the same one Theo had briefly borrowed.

 _Oh,_ Liam thinks hands gripping tightly at the map, crinkling the edges of the paper. _Oh._

Liam had admittedly been oblivious at the time, but now he gets it. Now, he understands. Liam had assumed that Theo was just seeing how far they had left to travel and was plotting out the best course of action. Now, though, Liam sees that Theo had been leaving him directions for home. Theo had known that he would be leaving Liam on his own. The infuriating chimera had been saving him, just like he always does, even when he’s not actually around.

Liam follows the messy lines of ink across the map with his fingers, tracing the lines Theo had made for him carefully. His fingers stumble to a halt beside the tiny town of Shirley, Kansas because there’s writing there. Neat and familiar. Liam traces the words and laughs; a choked sound bubbling up from his throat. His eyes feel hot again, the lines of the map all blurring together.

“You asshole, Raeken.”

_Try not to get lost or eaten, dumbass_

_\---_

Liam’s campfire is low, barely more than burning embers. It does little to warm him or keep the surrounding darkness at bay. He’d only made the fire out of habit, had picked a spot and gathered the wood before he even realized what he was doing. Like muscle memory. He watches the fire get lower and lower from where he’s curled in on himself within the confines of his sleeping bag. He doesn’t bother to feed the fire, or himself even though he knows he should do both. He doesn't remember the last time he ate something, but the thought of food in his mouth makes him nauseous and the gnawing pains of hunger in his stomach are easy to ignore in favor of the aching exhaustion his body feels. 

He’s just starting to finally fall asleep when the thought occurs to him that someone out there is eventually going to come across Theo. That someone out there is either going to put Theo down or get ripped to shreds by the undead chimera. It’s a horrifying thought all around, but if pressed Liam doesn’t know which side of the argument worries him more.

He’d like to think that Theo ripping into someone is the worst option... He’d like to think that, but he’s not sure that he does because a world with no Theo at all somehow seems much worse. 

Liam never manages to fall asleep after that.

\---

All the windows of the store are broken out or shattered. There’s smears of dry blood along the pavement and the bricks that build it up. Liam really doesn’t want to go inside. The chances of there being something edible or of use in the tiny store are low, but he knows he should check it out. He doesn’t have the luxury not to. He’s not as good at hunting as Theo was. He can’t shift into a wolf and prowl through the woods seeking out little woodland creatures to gnaw on for dinner. Liam has to scavenge what he can when he can.

Liam lets himself fall into a partial shift; lets his eyes flicker gold and his claws detract. He’s careful and quiet when he enters the store, ears pricked for the slightest of sounds be they human or rodent or dead. He doesn’t hear anything, but traveling with Theo—Learning from Theo has taught him to be cautious and ready for anything. Liam sucks in a deep breath, nose wrinkling at the scent of spoiled perishables and moldy food. He makes his way further into the shadow-filled shop.

The inside of the store is mostly demolished, several aisles barren, their shelves knocked to the ground. The only thing left that’s worth eating is mostly expired candy and a few boxes of maple flavored oatmeal. Liam stuffs them into his bag with a grimace. He hates the taste of maple oatmeal and most of the candy that’s left. They’re better than nothing though, even if the candy is lacking in the key nutrients he needs to survive, and the oatmeal is disgusting. He moves on, eyes peeled for anything of use, but the store is completely ransacked. He finds nothing.

Liam pauses at the end of the aisle labeled books and office supplies. There’s a painful lurch in his chest as his feet carry him unwillingly down the forward. He doesn’t need—or want—anything from the aisle, but his body doesn’t listen. It just stubbornly makes its way down the mostly untouched row.

He stops in front of the messily stacked puzzle books. One hand reaches out slowly towards a thick booklet of crossword puzzles, but stops right before his fingers can brush along the cover, body trembling in anger. Liam wonders, suddenly, if Theo had ever planned on telling him about being bitten. Or, if maybe, he had just planned to slip away in the middle of the night while Liam was happily asleep.

Liam has a moment of furious clarity as he thinks back to that night. As he thinks about Theo’s resigned face when Liam had found out and the way he had been trying to distance himself from Liam. He thinks about the following morning, about Theo’s skin growing paler and paler by the hour, the wheezing in his lungs, the bruises beneath his eyes as he slowly wasted away before Liam’s eyes.

Liam doesn’t know what would have been worse. Watching Theo die and turn or having him disappear without ever saying goodbye.

He tries to imagine what the would have been like. To just wake up the following morning to find the camp empty, no sign of Theo. Liam would have been pissed, would have hated the chimera for daring to ditch him in an apocalypse. Liam wouldn’t have even bothered to look for Theo, wouldn’t have cared about where he had gone.

That had probably been Theo’s plan from the moment he was bitten. It would be just like the chimera.

That selfish, infuriating fucking dickhead.

A noise leaves Liam. One he’s never made before. It’s livid and pained and raw. It makes him see red in a way that hasn’t happened since fighting Monroe’s gang of hunters. Liam’s hands' grip at the stacks of books. He rips them from the shelves, throws them to the floor; throws everything within reach to the floor. He doesn’t stop until his throat is raw from screaming and the mostly untouched aisle looks just as decimated—just as destroyed—as the rest of the store does. As the rest of the world does.

Liam’s left breathing hard and feeling more exhausted than he’s ever been in his life. His legs buckle beneath his own weight, sending his quaking body to the floor. He lands heavily on his hands and knees on the hard tile. The floor feels grimy beneath his sweaty palms.

He doesn’t cry. He doesn’t have any more tears in him. He’s too empty for them, or perhaps too dehydrated. He stares at the destruction he’s created. Liam doesn’t feel satisfied, he just feels numb. He takes a deep shuddering breath, holds it in his lings until he feels like he might pass out and then slowly exhales.

There’s a scraping sound coming from somewhere behind him, like the drag of feet on linoleum. A high rasping noise rings out through the store, the chatter of teeth in a hungry mouth. Liam wonders if it’s Theo. If maybe, somehow, the chimera has followed Liam all the way here; hungrily tracking his scent across the state. Liam is scared to turn around, scared of what he might find if he looks.

So, he doesn’t.

Liam closes his eyes and breathes in. The only smells he can pick out are his own anxiety, moldy food, and death. He doesn’t bother moving.

There’s a tingle along his spine. The feeling of someone—or something—standing too close. Hands grip on the back of Liam’s shirt, breath ghosting across his neck. For a second Liam entertains the idea of letting it happen; of letting it all play out. The putrid smell is overwhelming, the rasping in his ears loud.

It’s how it should have happened anyway, right?

_Don’t get lost or eaten, dumbass._

Liam jerks forward.

He hears the thud of the O falling onto its stomach and he quickly turns to face it. The O is reaching out for him as he scoots backward away from it on his hands, ass sliding over the messy floor knocking away paper and books as he goes.

He’s an idiot.

Theo didn’t fucking die just so Liam could give up right here. Theo didn’t save him just so Liam could turn around and throw it all away like it meant nothing; like _Theo_ meant nothing.

Liam shoots to his feet, the O is scurrying on its hands toward him, mouth a hungry gaping hole. Liam fumbles with one of the metal bars that help to hold up the shelves and pulls until the groaning metal gives way and he’s suddenly holding a makeshift weapon. Without a moments hesitance, he shoves the metal bar through the O’s head hard enough to go through the dirty tiles and stick upright into the floor.

Liam stares down at the unmoving zombie, watches as the blood slowly swims out from it towards the mess of puzzle books. He panics, his heart dropping to his stomach. Quickly, he scrambles to pick them all up before they can be stained red.

 _It’s stupid,_ he thinks. Saving the puzzle books isn’t going to change anything, isn’t going to make anything better, but he can’t bear the thought of them being tainted by death.

He couldn’t save Theo, no matter how much he wanted to, but he could save their puzzles.

He stacks them carefully on the bottom shelf, the only shelf that hadn’t been demolished in his sudden fit of rage. He feels a little crazy as he tries to pile them as neatly as he can, blood pooling around his feet. He holds onto the last puzzle book, grips it tightly in his hands. It doesn’t calm him, but it does help him breathe past the strangling hold he feels around his lungs.

There’s still anger in him simmering somewhere deep beneath the surface, but its familiar anger. Not the self-loathing that’s grown like vines around his chest, not the pure fury that’s been clouding his head. It’s the type of anger that’s always lived within him.

Liam can remember his stepfather talking about the grief. He remembers that there are five stages: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. Liam thinks he might have just graduated from the second stage.

He hopes so anyway.

He’s tired.

Liam doesn’t remember what the bargaining stage is supposed to be like. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to bargain with. He’s already lost Theo and that was the only thing he had of any real worth to him out here in this hellscape, but this stage has to be better than the last one, right? It’s one step closer to healing.

Liam let’s out a shaky exhale, holds the puzzle book close to his chest and turns back to the unmoving O. There’s guilt eating away at the pit of his stomach over what he had almost just let happen. Bile rises in the back of his throat, sour and hard to keep down.

\---

There are no woods here, no farms, just a tiny stretch of a town smack dab in the middle of nowhere. It’s quiet here, still. Not in a peaceful way, but in a way that whispers: _You’re all alone._

He passes rows and rows of houses, wonders if they’re as empty inside as he is. 

\---

He doesn’t make camp, despite how much he wants a fire to warm his shivering body. Instead, he finds solace inside a dusty old Nissan on the side of the road, locks all the doors and cocoons himself within his sleeping bag in the back seat. It’s cramped and uncomfortable, but the seats are softer than the freezing ground that leeches away all his body heat.

The car smells like dust and the people that used to drive it. The scent makes his nose itch, a tickle in the back of his nasal like he might sneeze if he breathes too deeply. He hunches down further into the warmth of his sleeping bag, buries his nose into the thick material. It smells like campfire and dirt and a little like Theo.

Liam’s stomach growls, loud and hungry. He’s hardly eaten anything in the past week, a little because food is hard to come by, but mostly because he just hasn’t had the urge. Liam sighs, one arm snaking from his bundle of warmth out into the frigid December air. He shivers as he drops his hand to the floor of the car and pats around for his backpack. A tiny noise of triumph leaving him when his palm makes contact with the travel-worn bag. He fumbles one-handedly with the zipper until it slides open just enough for him to slip a hand inside.

He rummages around inside the bag for one of the packages of candy he had pilfered a few days ago. He feels the smooth, familiar edges of the wrapper against his fingertips and plucks it out of his bag. He pulls his arm quickly back within the confines of the sleeping bag so that only his hands are free. Liam opens the package of candy slowly listens to the crinkles of the paper as he reveals the circular piece of chocolate. He stares at it contemplatively before finally taking a bite.

He snorts out a bitter laugh, nose wrinkling at the taste.

“Just like toothpaste,” He mutters to himself. He eats all of it though, bite by bite until there’s only a sticky film of chocolate on the pads of his fingers.

The windows of the car have all fogged up with his breath, but he can still see the shimmery outline of the moon through the sunroof. It’s waning, becoming fuller with each passing day. Liam hasn’t had to worry about the full moon in ages because Theo was his anchor, had been ever since the Anuk-ite had tried to ruin their lives. Liam had never told anyone. He hadn’t wanted anyone in the pack to know that all of his control was riding on the guy who had tried to kill Scott and tear apart their pack.

It just wasn’t the type of thing you could easily work into a conversation.

The one time Scott had commented on his surprising amount of control Liam had just shrugged and said; “I found something to pull me back.”

It wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t a something. It was a _someone_ and now that someone is gone.

Liam doesn’t feel in control anymore. Every step, every sound makes him want to snap. He’s beginning to worry that his palms might never heal, his claws having found a permanent home in the flesh of his palms. He wonders if Scott would be disappointed in him, disappointed in Liam’s tentative control.

The thought of his alpha, of his pack, tears a new little hold in Liam’s heart. He misses them so much. Misses talking to people and getting responses. His heart aches to be home, to be back in Beacon Hills, but there’s worry in the back of his mind.

What if there is no one in Beacon Hills?

What if they’re gone just like Theo?

What if Liam really is all alone in the world now?

When Liam’s breath starts coming and going way too fast, and his heart starts to speed up in a panic, there is no one around to bring him back. No one to talk him down and smooth away the worry like balm on a fresh burn.

Liam digs his claws into the palms of his hands and forgets how to breathe until he blacks out.

\---

Liam is close to the Kansas border, at least he thinks he is. He’s been off the road for a few days now, traveling between the woods and long stretches of open plains. He’s been traveling West, he knows, thanks to the sun. So, he’s not too worried about how close he is to the border or if he’s already passed it. He’s far too hungry and tired to spare it any real thought.

He hasn’t slept much in the last two weeks. Each rustle of leaves, each flutter of wings, has him shooting awake; has him gritting his teeth, digging his claws into the hard earth. He can’t do this anymore. Not alone.

He wants nothing more than to lay down and give up. The only reason he hasn’t yet is because he can practically hear Theo’s taunting voice in his head.

_Quitting so soon, Little Wolf?_

_Didn’t know you were so weak._

_That’s right, just go ahead and give in. I knew you couldn’t do it._

It eggs him on, makes him push back up onto his feet and continue walking.

He won’t give up, no matter how tired he is. He can’t. Not when he’s already come so far and lost so much. He’s going to make it home, no matter how long it takes him to get there. He's going to make it on his own and prove Theo wrong. 

\---

Liam’s only been resting his legs and eyes about thirty minutes when he hears the muted thuds of heavy footfalls. He’s on his feet in seconds, body swiveling around to locate the direction of the sound. Head lifting high to catch the scent on the wind when it blows through the trees. There’s no rot, or blood, or decay, just sweat and the smell of gunpowder.

_Humans._

“Well, well, lookie here boys, Richie was right,” A voice drawls from behind Liam. “It is a live one.”

Liam turns sharply to face the newcomers just as they step out from the dead thatch of surrounding foliage. There’s only three of them in total, but all of them have Liam’s hackles rising defensively.

“Told ya,” One of the men say loudly, Liam presumes he’s the aforementioned ‘Richie’.

“So, you did,” Says the one Liam is dubbing the ringleader. All of the men have nasty smiles on their faces and a darkness in their eyes that Liam hasn’t seen since the Anuk-ite had infected his hometown.

Liam hasn’t seen another person in weeks and honestly, he could go much longer if these people were the choice he was given.

He doesn’t like this at all.

The third man pulls up a shotgun, points is directly at Liam. “What you want us to do with him?”

“I don’t want any trouble,” Liam’s voice is rusty with disuse, he hasn't spoken out loud in days. “If you want my bag you can have it, just let me leave.”

Liam starts to shrug off his bag, his feet slowly backing him away.

“Stop moving,” ShotGun barks at him, holding his firearm up even higher so that it’s aimed directly at Liam’s chest. Liam freezes, hands immediately falling to his sides. He doesn’t want to get shot, doesn’t think it’ll heal quickly enough at this point. He’s too exhausted, and a lack of proper nutrition fucks with even a werewolf’s healing abilities.

The ringleader shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly, but his eyes are colder than anything Liam’s ever seen before.

“Do what you want with him, but bring me his things.” He turns, waving his hand as he goes. “Be quick about it.”

Richie and ShotGun move towards him in unison, Richie smiling lasciviously.

Liam is at once on edge. The stench of their lust poisons the air around him, makes him feel nauseous. Liam can’t deal with this right now. He’ll get angry, and that’s the last thing he wants to do despite these men obviously deserving it, it’s too close to the full moon.

Liam will end up losing complete control. He won’t be able to reel himself back in on his own.

“Would you look at that mouth,” ShotGun croons to Richie as they get closer and closer. ShotGun still has his gun pointed at Liam, ready to blow him apart at a moment’s notice. “I bet he’s a screamer, would do you think, Rich?”

Liam can feel his control fraying like the end of a rope, strand by strand its coming unwound.

He wants to run away, but his body isn’t listening to him, won’t move more than a slow halting step backward at a time. He can feel it low in the pit of his stomach, the simmering rage laying in wait.

His wolf rallies against him; it wants out—needs out. Liam’s breath comer faster, heart thudding painfully in his chest as his hands tremble at his sides. He lowers his head, eyes focusing on the ground as he forces himself to take another step back. He can’t look at the men, can’t stare into their disgusting faces or he’ll completely rip them apart.

“I think I can’t wait to find out for myself,” Richie admits one hand already thumbing at the top button of his jeans to open them.

Liam can feel it when the last thread on his control snaps.

It’s like a tidal wave, like solar flares, like the earth shifting beneath his feet. It’s something bigger than him, something uncontrollable, something dangerous.

Liam stops walking away, slowly he slips the backpack from his shoulders and lets it drop to the ground with a soft thud.

The men laugh obliviously.

“Oh, look, he’s stopped trying to run away.”

“You think he wants is,” Richie laughs. “He looks like the type to want it.”

“Come on boys, quit fucking around,” The ringleader calls out from where he’s lounging back against a tree, cleaning beneath his nails with the tip of his knife. “Bring me his bag and then you can play!”

Liam lifts his head.

The men stop in their tracks as they take note of the unnatural golden sheen to Liam’s hungry eyes; the predatory stillness of his body. Humans have a natural fight or flight instinct instilled in them when faced with a threat, even if they don’t fully comprehend the prickle of danger across their skin or understand why it’s there. These men don’t know it yet, but they feel it.

Liam is going to kill them.

“What the—” ShotGun takes a sudden step back.

Liam’s lips curl back into a snarl, fangs on display for all to see. He can feel the push of his claws as they detract from the tips of his fingers. His wolf howls in delight at being set free; revels in the hunt Liam is offering it like a sacrifice.

Liam can see the fear slowly taking root in the men’s eyes, can smell it in their scent. He doesn’t care. He’s been empty for so long now that the anger feels good, feels pleasantly familiar and safe. There’s nothing to hold Liam back, no one to hold him back. He’s tether-less, his anchor gone, and Liam is ready to sink his teeth into something.

Richie stumbles backward. “Holy shit, what the fuck is he a zombie?” He smacks at ShotGun several times with his free hand, his other holding a knife. “For fuck's sake, Thomas, shoot him!”

The ringleader yells out, “What are you stupid fuckers doing?” He stands up and starts toward them only to freeze mid-step. “Holy hell, what is that?”

ShotGun fumbles his firearm, raises it to shoot, but Liam darts forward, faster in his fury, before he can even put his finger on the trigger and rips it from his hands. ShotGun screams, pained and terrified when Liam sinks his claws into the man's shoulder and pushes him roughly onto the ground. Liam can smell blood and it makes something in his stomach twist in satisfaction.

Richie is running for his life, the ringleader following suit. They’re surprisingly fast for old men. Liam doesn’t mind. Neither of them is a match for him when it comes to speed. The thrill of the hunt thrums through him like electricity. His wolf shivers in anticipation. Liam bares his teeth in a terrifying semblance of a smile and gives chase.

His wolf wants blood and so does he.

Catching them is easy, incredibly so, just how Liam knew it would be. He has them cornered, even though they don’t realize it yet. They think Liam can’t hear them breathing hard, can’t hear the terrified tempo of their heats within their chests. They think he can’t smell their putrid fear rolling off them in waves leading Liam right to them like he’s following lines on a treasure map.

They’re hiding in what must be a little cave in the side of a large rock formation, browning moss and ivy growing over the opening and hiding it from view. It smell’s heavily of the men, as though they’ve been here many times before like it’s their secret hideout.

Liam’s wolf is conflicted. It wants to bide its time and play with the men, but it also can’t wait to tear into them, to let loose what Liam has been holding in for years. More than anything his wolf wants them to scream.

Liam snarls and stalks forward. He rips the ivy from the stone, revealing the men. Richie screams, curses falling from his mouth like prayers. The ringleader charges at Liam, knife waving dangerously through the air. It slices into Liam’s arm before he can dodge it, pain radiating through his limb. It only serves to make Liam even more furious. More lethal.

Liam swipes at the man, catches him in the side with his claws and then again across the face. It’s not enough to kill, but it’s more than enough to maim. The man yells out in pain, hands dropping the knife to clutch at his bleeding face. Liam pushes the ringleader deeper into the cave until they collide into a wall hard enough to render the man unconscious.

Richie seizes the opportunity to rush past them out into the light of the fading day. Liam doesn’t hesitate to prowl out after him, his wolf enjoying the chase.

Liam’s on him within seconds, tackling the man harshly to the ground. There’s no threat that Liam has to worry about now, no one to distract him from his kill. There’s just him and Richie.

The man is staring up at Liam in pure terror and Liam likes it. His wolf likes it. They both want this man to bleed, to pay for what he was going to do to Liam, to pay for everything. Liam growls, eyes narrowing. He lifts his hand up high, claws out and ready to slash and rip this man apart, but another hand closes around his wrist and roughly jerks him up and away. Liam lets out a warning growl low in his throat, turns to push the assailant away with his other hand when he registers the scent.

It’s earthy and dark, and painfully familiar.

_Theo._

Liam’s hand is still poised for an attack, poised for the kill, but Theo’s grip around his wrist is unrelenting. Liam would think he was hallucinating if it wasn’t for the bracelet of warmth Theos fingers provided. It’s unapologetically Theo to appear out of no where just in time to stop Liam from doing something he’ll regret; just in time to save him even if it’s from himself. Liam twists around in the chimeras hold to see him.

Theo’s not looking at him, his attention is on the man lying in the dirt crying for his life. Theo’s fangs are bared, eyes glimmering a dangerous gold. “Leave.”

The man scrabbles to his feet, _thank you’s_ falling from his lips even as he runs away. Liam notes that he doesn’t go toward where either of his comrades had fallen. Figures.

Liam turns back to Theo, watches as his features shift, become more human. His eyes fading back to their normal shade of green, fangs receding into normal human teeth. Theo’s claws are no longer piercing into the skin of Liam’s wrist.

Liam can feel his own anger slipping away from him as his shift falls away in tandem with Theo’s. His wolf settling, calming, pleased.

Theo finally looks at him, his hand sliding down Liam’s arm slowly before falling back to his own side. “I’m gone barely two weeks and you’re already trying to kill someone, Dunbar.”

Liam doesn’t know what to say. Part of him doesn’t believe this is even happening. Theo’s dead. Or, at the very least a member of the undead. So, for Theo to be here right now, it’s just… Liam doesn’t have any words.

There’s a long, heavy pause in which they just stare at each other until Liam interrupts it by throwing himself at the chimera. His arms wrapping tightly around the other boy’s neck and pulling him into a hug.

“You’re alive,” Liam breathes into his shoulder.

There’s a fleeting brush of fingers along Liam’s back. There and gone in a second, like Theo had thought about returning the hug before deciding against it. Liam doesn’t care, just continues to clutch at him. Not ready to let go yet. He’d thought he was alone. He’d thought he had lost Theo for good.

“Liam,” Theo whispers, warm breath ghosting along his neck. “You planning on letting go anytime soon?”

Liam pulls away in slow increments, but he doesn’t let Theo go completely. He lets his hands run down the chimera’s back, settle on his waist, fingers digging into Theo’s soft green sweater. Liam slowly lifts his head, eyes skating over the chimera, taking him all in.

Theo’s face is still several shades too pale. The skin beneath his eyes is a deep and worrying color of purple. He looks like death warmed over, but Liam can hear his heartbeat. It’s steady and alive within Theo’s chest. Liam’s fingers tighten minutely on Theo’s waist and then, finally, he lets go.

 _Theo’s really here_ , he thinks. _Really alive._

Liam punches him in the face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the reviews for the last chapter, they were all amazing and I enjoyed reading every one of them. ❤️
> 
> I hope you guys continue to read and enjoy this fic.


	7. Are You Real?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is like all over the place. 
> 
> The mood is very: up, down, up, down, up, DOWNNNN

_Liam punches him in the face._

_\---_

“What the fuck,” Theo yelps, stumbling backward hands clutching at his broken nose.

Liam reaches out and catches Theo by the crook of his elbow, so he doesn’t fall onto his ass. Liam’s hands are trembling; with anger, with relief. He doesn’t know. There are too many emotions coursing through Liam. Fuck Theo and his _You only feel one emotion at a time_ bullshit.

 “You—You’re a fucking asshole,” Liam chokes out.

“Yeah,” Theo agrees, voice muffled by his hands. “ _I know_ , you’ve told me at least a hundred times now. You even became president of the 'Theo’s an asshole' club.”

“You, you,” And Liam can’t get out the words anymore. He sinks to his knees on the ground, fingers twisted tightly in the material of Theo’s sleeve.

Liam can feel the tension in the sudden stillness of Theo’s body, confusion and distress rolling off the chimera in waves. Theo drops down onto his haunches in front of him and for a moment he just sits there staring a little helplessly at Liam, hands twitching at his sides like he doesn’t know what to do with them. Theo reaches out, slow and hesitant, and pulls Liam into his arms.

“I’m sorry,” Theo says quietly into his hair as Liam clutches at him, his fingers digging deep into Theo’s back. “I didn’t mean to leave you all alone.”

Liam doesn't say anything, doesn't think he could even if he wanted to. So, he just buries his face in the crook of Theo's neck and shoulder and takes hiccoughing breaths of the chimera's scent.

They stay like that for a long time.

\---

Liam feels awkward and more than a little embarrassed for crying all over Theo when he finally pulls himself away. Theo doesn’t say anything about the dampness of his shoulder or make a crack about Liam sobbing all over him, he just stands up and holds out a hand to help Liam to his feet.

The sun is dipping down low behind the forest of barren trees, shadows crawling across the ground. Liam suddenly feels cold without the comforting warmth of Theo's arms. The anger and frustration from before deserting him; leaving him empty save for a bone-deep exhaustion.

"I left our bags somewhere over there," Theo says waving his hand in a vague direction to the left when Liam is finally on his feet beside him. "Stay here, I'll go get them."

"Our bags," Liam repeats absently.

What was his bag doing with Theo's?

Liam's backpack was supposed to be back in that clearing where he'd left it, back where he'd...

He freezes, liquid nitrogen running through his veins. "Oh."

"Liam?"

Liam had dropped his bag on the ground in the clearing so that he could attack someone, attack a human. Several humans to be exact.

"I—I almost," Liam stutters out in horror.

He'd almost killed someone. He had been mere seconds away from ripping into a man's throat with his claws. He was going to enjoy it too, revel in the feeling of their lives slipping away just because Liam wanted them to. 

"Liam," Theo's says again, voice demanding Liam's attention. His hands are gripping Liam's shoulders tightly to make him focus. "Come on, Dumbass, listen to me."

Liam blinks up at him. Theo nods when he sees he has Liam's attention.

"You didn't kill anyone."

Liam opens his mouth to interrupt, but Theo trudges on with a sharp shake of his head.

"Nope, listen up," Theo tells him squeezing his shoulders. "You didn't kill anyone, and you wouldn't have even if I wasn't here to stop you."

"You don't know that," Liam argues, but there's no heat to his voice. He sounds lost and defeated. "I was ready to kill that man. I _wanted_ to kill him, Theo."

“You wanted to kill Nolan too, remember?” Theo reminds him, eyes boring into his. “At the zoo. You wanted to kill Nolan, but you stopped yourself.”

Liam has to bite down on his tongue to keep from saying that the only reason he had been able to stop at the zoo was because Theo had been there with him; hovering over his shoulder like a mother hen from hell. Taunting and goading Liam into realizing that it would be a mistake to rip Nolan apart.

“You didn’t kill that man and you didn’t kill Nolan. Don’t beat yourself up over what if’s,” Theo lets him go and steps back, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “Now, stop freaking out and don’t move. I’ll be back in a second.”

“Wait,” Liam yelps hand catching at Theo’s wrist, fingers settling over the chimera’s pulse.

Theo pauses, half turning to look at him, eyebrow raised inquiringly.

"What now," He asks, looking exhausted.

"I'll come with you," Liam says. He literally just got Theo back, he's not letting the chimera out of his sight, at least not anytime soon. He also doesn't trust himself to be alone, not yet.

Theo's eyes are dark and contemplative as they guide over Liam's face.

"Alright," He says. "Then hurry up, we're losing daylight, Littlewolf."

Theo doesn't mention anything about the vice-like grip Liam still has around his wrist. He doesn't complain about the way Liam digs his fingers into his pulse point to feel the steady pump of blood to and from Theo's heart beneath his skin. Maybe he understands Liam's need for reassurance.

Maybe Theo needs it too.

\---

Their bags are fairly easy to find, not too far from where Liam and Theo had just been. They look like they had been thrown to the ground in a hurry, some of their contents spilling from the pockets onto the dirt. Like, Theo had been in a rush to get to Liam.

"How did you find my bag," Liam asks curiously scooping up his backpack and slipping his arms through the straps.

"It smells like you," Theo says stuffing the spilled items back into his own backpack. It’s mostly dirty clothes and cooking supplies.

Liam waits for him to elaborate, but he doesn't.

"That's it," Liam huffs. "That's all the explanation I get?"

"What else am I supposed to say," Theo snarks back rolling his eyes. "I'm a chimera. You have a scent. It's rubbed off onto your backpack, Liam."

Liam makes a face at him and crosses his arms over his chest.

"I could smell you and fresh blood, I followed it and it led me to your bag." Theo huffs out in exasperation.

He pauses and then adds: "After that, I knew you had to be close by."

Liam thinks about the man he had left clawed open on the ground by his backpack and flinches.

"Was...Was ShotGun okay," He asks quietly. "He didn't look like he was going to die, did he?"

"Shotgun?"

"Uh," Liam flushes in embarrassment. "The guy...He had a Shotgun...I didn't know what else to call him."

Theo shrugs, but he looks a little amused. "Don't know, he probably ran off before I got there or..." Theo trails off, face turning grim.

"Or," Liam finishes for him. "He died and turned."

“That is an option,” Theo admits.

Liam is strangely grateful that Theo refuses to sugar coat his words. It doesn’t make him feel better or worse about the situation, it just makes him feel like his worries are acknowledged and validated because they could prove to be true. It’s one thing Liam has always admired about the chimera.

“Like I said though, don’t beat yourself up over what if’s,” Theo says. “We’ll never know.”

"We should find someplace to camp out," Theo says blatantly changing the topic eyes trailing up to the purpling sky. "It's going to get colder once the suns completely gone."

Theo looks dead on his feet as he stands there waiting for Liam to gather his thoughts and emotions. Theo looks dead period, if Liam is being honest.

"There's a cave," Liam says slowly, thoughts immediately going to the Ringleader. The chances of the man still being where Liam had attacked him are slim.

Theo nods. "Alright, lead the way."

\---

The ring leader is long gone, had probably fled the moment he regained consciousness. Liam hopes he had, anyway. He doesn’t want to worry about having probably killed two different men. He follows Theo’s advice and pushes the thoughts from his mind. He’ll never know if those men died and wandered away as zombies, or if they’re just injured and seeking refuge. _They weren’t innocent men, either way_ , he tells himself.

The cave is small and empty save for a line of wrappers and a pile of dead sticks and logs. They use the wood to build a low fire close enough to the mouth of the cave so that the smoke will billow out instead of swirling inside and choking them. Despite the cold cave wall against his back, Liam feels warm and oddly safe for the first time in over two weeks.

Liam feeds the fire another small stick, watches as it catches and burns. The flames rise higher as though thanking him for his contribution and then drop back down to a low burn. He picks up another stick, fingernails plucking at its skin and he peels it slowly, dropping the pieces of skin into the fire one by one.

Theo's sitting across from him, leaning on the opposite wall of the cavern. It's painfully quiet. Neither of them are speaking and Liam hates it. He doesn't like the silence, he's had enough of it by now to last him a lifetime. Liam doesn't want to be the first to speak, but he does want conversation and he knows how to start one without really having to start it.

Liam drops the stick he's been playing with into the fire and sets his gaze on Theo. The chimera tenses up the moment he notices Liam's eyes on him. Liam knows Theo loves attention, but only when it's premeditated. Theo doesn't like being observed when he's not expecting it when he's not prepared to deal with everything it entails. Liam watches as Theo's shoulder hunch closer and closer to his ears the longer Liam stares at him.

 _He'll break soon_ , Liam thinks eyes boring into the top of Theo’s head. He waits.

"What," Theo finally snaps, eyes meeting Liam's over the rolling flames, shadows dancing across the planes of his face. They make the bruises beneath the chimera's eyes look like black holes.

Liam has a lot that he wants to say to Theo; a lot he wants to ask. Like; how is he alive? How did he find his way back to Liam? Was it just by scent? Mostly, though, Liam wants to thank Theo for saving him, again and again, not just from other's but also from himself.

He doesn't say any of that though.

Instead, what comes out of his mouth is: "You look like shit."

Theo blinks in surprise, eyes widening ever so slightly before narrowing into angry slits.

"Yeah," He growls at Liam. "Well, _you_ try getting bit by a fucking zombie and see how you look afterward, Dunbar."

"I think I'd pull it off better than you," Liam says airily as he fights back a grin.

Theo rolls his eyes, but there's the hint of a smile pressing at the corners of his mouth, threatening to break free at any moment and Liam is filled with a sudden sense of relief. He'd almost lost this, this easy comradery and begrudging friendship. He'd almost lost Theo and he's just so fucking glad that he didn't.

Theo flips him off and Liam laughs, it's the first time in weeks where it doesn't sound like he's being punched in the gut. He laughs even harder when he catches the faint sound of Theo's own laughter, low and soothing like the crackling of a fire.

"I missed you," Liam admits when their amusement has tapered off into a comfortable silence.

He hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Theo looks surprised by the admission, lips parting and hands pausing just as they started to push his hair back from his face. Liam thinks about adding something snarky like he usually would, but he doesn't want to. He just wants to tell the truth and mean it, just this once.

"Yeah?" Theo's hands fall into his lap.

"Yeah."

"Well," Theo says slowly and Liam knows he's thinking of a way to break the weird atmosphere, a way to get them back on their usual track, and Liam is okay with that. After all this time spent with just Theo, he's learned quite a lot about the other boy. He knows that it's what Theo needs.

 "I'm a very missable person," Theo says at last.

"That's not even a word," Liam points out letting them fall back into their familiar pattern of light bickering.

"How do you know, you suck at crosswords," Theo shoots back and Liam can see the tension easing from the set of his shoulders, can see his face opening up. "You probably suck at scrabble too."

"I could be amazing at Scrabble," Liam huffs under his breath reaching for his backpack and pulling it close. "You'll never know though because we don't have the board game."

He digs through his bag for the new book of puzzles and pulls it free.

"We do, however, have a lot of new crosswords to do," Liam says with a haughty grin. "So, prepare to eat your words, Raeken."

Theo snorts. "Prepare to not have any words, Dunbar."

\---

Liam scribbles out letter after letter into the tiny squares of the puzzle book as he listens to Theo's low puffs of laughter and the steady beat of the chimera’s heart.

"I don't think that's how you spell onomatopoeia."

"Do you know how to spell it," Liam asks with a grumble trying to write an O over an E. The square is starting to look more like a blob of blue ink than a box with a letter in it. Liam makes a noise of frustration but continues to try and fix it.

"...No..." Theo admits like it pains him to not know something. "But, I'm positive you're spelling it wrong."

“I don’t care.”

  _The night doesn't seem so dark or quiet anymore._

\---

The morning is cold and damp, dew settling deep into Liam's clothing making him shiver. December in Kansas is nothing like December in California, it's giving Liam a whole new sense of appreciation for his home state and its warmer climates.

Liam blinks up at the soft blue light filtering in through the mouth of the cave. It makes the wet walls glimmer like millions of tiny diamonds embedded in the stone. He stretches out, shivers when the cold rushes in to greet his outstretched limbs and rolls onto his side. Liam's eyes immediately seek out Theo in the dimly lit cave.

The chimera's sitting back against the wall wrapped up in his sleeping bag, head titled back, tired eyes staring up at the ceiling like he's looking at stars. Theo looks soft in the morning light, almost ethereal and unreal. Liam wonders if he's finally gone crazy and is actually just imagining Theo being here.

"How are you alive," Liam whispers voice catching on the question that's been burning at the tip of his tongue since he first saw Theo yesterday.

Theo's head drops down, eyes finding Liam's. He's quiet for so long that Liam thinks he's not going to answer. Theo lets out a long slow breath, pushes the blanket away and starts to rolls up the sleeve of his sweater. Theo stares down at his arm, then he holds it out for Liam to see.

Liam sits up slowly and moves closer. There's a scar on Theo's inner forearm in the shape of a bite mark. The skin is shiny and new, the way that all humans scar, but Theo isn't a human and this wound should have disappeared days ago.

"I think I died," Theo says, his voice sounds distant as though he's trapped in a memory. "I know I _wanted_ to."

Liam can't stop himself from reaching out and touching the scar. Theo's sucks in a breath of surprise the moment his fingers trail across the exposed skin.

 Theo's skin is smooth save for the ripples of the bite mark, like brail written into his flesh.

"I don't remember much," Theo tells him, eyes watching Liam's fingers move along his arm. "Just that everything hurt and then finally it all started to go black."

Liam drawls his eyes up away from the scar and looks at Theo.

"When I woke up I thought I was..." Theo trails off slowly looking uncomfortable. He pulls his arm away from Liam and rolls the sleeve back down. He looks lost to Liam like he doesn’t know what else to say, like he doesn't want to relive it. "It was cold... Just like the last time."

Liam doesn't ask what he means by last time. He thinks he knows. Theo must have thought he was in hell again. Liam digs his nails into the palms of his hands.

It must have been terrifying for Theo to be so certain he was going to die, to make Liam leave him all alone. Liam tries to imagine how confusing it would have been to wake up and realize that you weren't dead. To wake up and realize that you're alive and alone.

Liam tries to give Theo a smile, but he knows it looks more like a pained grimace than anything else. "You're hard to get rid of."

Theo snorts and it sounds like it's been punched out of him. His head thumps back against the cave wall, shoulders slumping. His voice is quiet when he says: "Yeah."

\---

They don't leave the cave until late morning when the sun has risen up to the tops of the trees and the cool wind has less of a bite. They move at a languid pace, both of them too exhausted to convince their bodies to go any faster.

Liam keeps staring at Theo from the corner of his eye. He hadn't been lying last night when he told Theo he looked like shit. The chimera is pale in the light of day, the purple beneath his eyes more pronounced. He looks thinner like he hasn't eaten at all in the two weeks they've been apart, the soft green sweater hangs around him loosely. Liam is worried, wants to ask the chimera if he's really okay, but he knows Theo will just brush it aside.

"Look," Theo says suddenly startling Liam. He's pointing up ahead at a billboard just peeking through the trees. It's a large garish yellow sign with bright red lettering proudly declaring the world's best souvenir shop.

Liam frowns over at Theo. "Do you think it'll have anything other than tacky clothes and snow globes?"

 "Probably has some pretty nice shot glasses and key chains," Theo shrugs.

"Yeah, because that's what we need in an apocalypse," Liam says dryly. "Nice shot glasses and key chains."

"Liam finally gets one thing right," Theo deadpans and Liam punches him in the shoulder.

 

\---

The outside of the shop is just as garish a yellow as the billboard sign was. It hurts Liam's eyes to even look at it. It's surprisingly untouched, the windows all intact and not a spec of blood in sight. It's a far cry from the last time Liam visited a store.

A wave of apprehension hits Liam as soon as Theo steps up to the glass door and pulls on the handle. The door opens easily, a bell tinkling above to signal their entrance. Theo tenses at the sound, eyes narrowing at the shadowy shop for any signs of movement.

"Make sure you're-"

"Careful," Liam cuts him off with a roll of his eyes, exuding confidence he doesn't feel in the slightest. "Yeah, I know."

The shop is surprisingly large inside, aisles and shelves filled with glass trinkets and stuffed animals. It's all just as tacky as Liam had known it was going to be. He makes a face at a line of neon-colored fanny packs.

"Who even uses those," He mumbles to himself flicking an ugly green one with a claw as he passes it.

He makes his way further into the shop, listening carefully for danger, eyes roving along the walls and shelves for anything of use. He spots a spinning rack of beanies and snapbacks and makes his way towards them. It's getting cold, the start of winter only a couple weeks away and it's only going to be worse when they finally make it to Colorado. He grimaces at the thought of traveling through the mountains. Beanies are definitely on the list of useful items.

They're in a plethora of colors and styles, each of them soft and warm looking. Liam trails his fingers along the material feeling them out. He glances over his shoulder for Theo, but the chimera is on the other side of the store looking pleased with himself as he fiddles with a little red contraption. Liam snorts and turns back to the beanies.

The amusement slowly fades away. His mind flashing back to the last time he'd been in a store. He'd been so alone; ready to give up, to give in.

“What’s with that serious face?” Theo asks sidling up beside him, he’s wearing a new sweatshirt and is stuffing several more into his backpack.

“I…” He starts guilt twisting through his stomach.

“You…” Theo says encouraging him to continue, dropping his bag at his feet.

“I almost did something stupid,” Liam admits fiddling with one of the beanies on the rack and accidentally pulling it off. “While you were gone.”

“How is that different from any other day,” Theo asks mockingly.

When Liam doesn’t answer him, he crosses his arms over his chest, eyes going serious. “What happened, Liam?”

“You saved me,” Liam murmurs quietly. He clears his throat and turns to Theo, the beanie clutched in his hands like a safety net. “Even though you weren’t here you saved me.”

Theo looks confused, but he remains silent, like he knows Liam is trying to work out the right words in his head.

Liam takes a deep shuddering breath, he feels shaky and sick.

“I, that stupid thing I did, it—It almost cost me my life and I didn’t care. I was alone and tired and... I wanted to give up, Theo,” Liam doesn’t want to admit to any of this, but he needs to. If he doesn’t he mind just drown. “What was the point? You weren’t there anymore, and it was just me.”

Liam pauses to pull himself together, fingers twisting nervously as the guilt threatens to choke him.

“Who was going to know it was on purpose? Who was going to know that I wanted it? There was no one, but then… I thought of you, of your words on the map and I knew you’d be furious with me,” Liam drops his eyes to the floor. “So, you saved me by making me want to save myself. You’re always saving me even when you’re nowhere near me.”

“You saved me first.”

Liam’s eyes shoot up to Theo in surprise. He looks awkward and just as startled by the words as Liam feels. Theo’s eyes drift up over Liam’s head, so he can stare at the wall behind him.

“From Hell,” Theo’s voice is low. “And from who I was.”

His eyes travel back down to Liam. “I wasn’t a good person, I’m still not, but I have the chance to become one because of you.”

Theo licks his lips nervously; his voice is barely a whisper. “I _want_ to become one because of you.”

Liam doesn’t know what to say. His heart is hammering in his chest. He wants to reach out and touch Theo, but he’s terrified he might not stop at a single touch. They stand there in silence just staring at one another. Theo looking more and more uncomfortable as the silence goes on.  

"Did you find one you liked,” Theo asks head tilting towards the line of beanies and caps.

Liam nods and holds up the hat in his hands. It’s a bright pink with splashes of green camouflage on it. It is _not_ the hat Liam had meant to grab. Liam frowns at the atrocity in his hands.

Theo stares at the beanie dubiously. “I don’t think that will suit you... Or anyone.”

Liam glances down at the beanie in his hands. He agrees, completely, but he can’t resist the urge to fuck with Theo. So, he lifts the beanie up high and plunges it down onto Theo’s head covering the chimera’s eyes before he can be stopped.

“I don’t know, I think it kind of suits you,” He snorts.

Theo growls and pushes the beanie up from his eyes, so he can shoot Liam a death glare. He looks ridiculous. Liam can’t help the laughter that peels from his lips at the sight of Theo wearing a way too big sweatshirt that proudly claims he loves Kansas and the hideous beanie. He looks like a 3 A.M Walmart reject.

Theo kicks him in the shin when Liam tells him as much.

Liam yelps ducking down to grab at his stinging leg. When he looks up to shoot a glare at Theo, Theo slips a matching beanie onto his head and grins down at him.

“Hmm,” Theo hums out in a contemplative manner. “Maybe hideous things do suit you.”

Liam flips him off with one hand and punches him in the stomach with the other. He doesn’t remember why he missed Theo, the asshole.

\---

They both look ridiculous, walking down a street in a tiny town wearing an assortment of clothing that doesn't match at all. It makes Liam's cheeks hurt every time he glances over at Theo and sees the bright pink beanie on his head despite it being hours since they had left the store.

Somehow, they had goaded one another into keeping the hideous beanies instead of trading them out for a simple black or blue one. There was a tiny argument between the two of them about real men and the color pink, Liam’s pretty sure the whole conversation was complete bullshit, but he has to admit, to himself, that the end result is kind of adorable.

After an hour of insulting one another back and forth, they had agreed to a truce to just ignore the beanies because they're warm and the only ones they though to grab, but Liam is still having a hard time not smiling.

"Shut up, Liam." Theo huffs for the fifth time.

"I'm not even talking."

"Your face says it all," Theo grumbles shoving him into a dusty looking Cobalt parked on the side of the road. They both startle when the alarm starts blaring, it's been a while since they've been around cars that weren't just abandoned. 

“Shit,” Liam hisses backing away from the car, eyes darting around the road for any signs of O’s.

“Fuck, run,” Theo barks tugging on his hand and pulling him down the road when several O’s start making their way towards them.

They dart down the road as fast as they can. They don’t stop running until the car alarm is far enough away that even their sensitives ears can no longer hear it.

“You asshole, that could have ended badly,” Liam growls bending over and trying to catch his breath, bag slipping down his arms and onto the ground beside where Theo had tossed his. 

He lazily swipes at Theo in retribution for the entire ordeal, but the chimera easily side-steps his arm and catches him by the wrist. Theo looks just as out of breath as Liam does, but he also looks a little pleased with himself as he turns Liam’s hand over and drops something into his palm.

“Made you something,” Is all he says releasing Liam's hand. 

Liam straightens up and frowns at the tiny object in his palm. It’s a small white button with familiar black scrawl written on it beneath the shiny plastic coating. Liam twists it around, so he can read it.

**Theo’s an Asshole Club President**

Liam looks up at Theo incredulously. “How did you make this?”

“There was a do-it-yourself button maker at the souvenir shop,” Theo shrug in a way that would be nonchalant if he wasn’t grinning so much.

Liam grins back and pins the button to the strap of his backpack.

Theo stares down at the button. His expression is soft. “Now you just need the T-shirts and maybe more club members.”

“Rome wasn’t built in a day Theo,” Liam says matter-of-factly. “One step at a time.”

Theo rolls his eyes, muttering under his breath. “You probably know how long it took to build Rome.”

“Actually—” Liam starts, preparing to go on a history tangent only to cut himself off when he hears a familiar rasping sound and the dragging of feet making into way through the cluster of trees separating them from the freeway. He sighs in irritation. They just never get a break. 

“I’ll get it,” Theo tells him dropping out his claws and stalking forward towards the sound only to freeze at the tree line. The chimera takes a halting step backward and then two more.

“Theo?” Liam calls out worriedly. The scent of fear hitting his nose like an avalanche. He hurries towards Theo, prepared to fight if need be.

“Oh,” Liam whispers, heart clenching when the O slips through the trees and out into the open.

It’s just a little girl no more than twelve. Her long dark hair is tangled and matted with blood, her ribcage pulled open by hungry hands. She’s reaching out towards Theo mouth open in a wordless cry. Theo stumbles back into Liam apologies falling from his mouth that Liam knows aren’t meant for him.

Liam reaches out and takes Theo’s hand, grips it tight when Theo flinches away from the contact. Theo doesn’t look at him, he only has eyes for the little girl.

“I’m sorry,” Theo whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

“Theo,” Liam tugs on his hand. “Come on, let’s just go.”

Theo turns to him; his eyes are so wide and terrified. “Are you even real?”

“Of course, I’m real,” Liam tells him in surprise. What is Theo even talking about?

The little O is getting closer and Liam doesn’t have the heart or the stomach to stop her, so he tries to pull Theo away again. “Why wouldn’t I be real, Theo.”

Theo turns back to face the O. “She’s real.”

“Yes, she’s real too,” Liam says still desperately tugging at Theo, trying to get him to move, but the chimera isn’t budging. “Theo what the fuck are you doing, come on!”

“There’s no place to go,” Theo whispers. “She always catches me.”

Liam jerks him hard to the side and kicks his leg out at the little O catching it on the shoulder and knocking it down. Guilt wars within him, because fuck, it’s a kid, but at the same time it isn’t.

Liam grips Theo’s wrist hard, nails digging into the flesh. “What do you mean she always catches you? Who do you think she is, Theo? Where do you think you are right now?”

“Hell.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I'm so sorry, I know this chapter is kind of just all over the place. 
> 
>  
> 
> 2\. Would anyone be interested in reading a short side chapter from Theo’s perspective of their time apart? I’m thinking about writing one from the moment Theo is bitten to when he finally finds Liam. 
> 
>  
> 
> Come talk to me on Tumblr. =)


	8. Realizations

_Hell._

Theo thinks he’s in Hell.

Liam whines low in his throat as the little O drags herself back up to her feet and hobbles towards them. Theo isn’t budging, eyes riveted on the tiny walking corpse. Liam doesn’t know what to do, tugging Theo isn’t working, but Liam doesn’t know if he has the strength to carry Theo.

_Fuck._

“Theo, please,” Liam begs him. “Come on!”

He wraps his hands around Theo from behind and drags the chimera across the ground. Liam’s too hungry and tired and scared, he doesn’t have enough strength to carry them both and they tumble to the ground. A cloud of dirt rushes up and chokes him. Liam growls in frustration and scurries out from beneath Theo’s dead weight. Liam staggers upright to his feet, claws extending from his fingertips and steps defensively in front of the terrified boy.

Liam’s lost track of how many O’s he’s gotten rid of, he’s never had to put down such a little one. Bile rises up in the back of his throat. Guilt sits heavily on his chest, makes sucking in air difficult.

“I’m sorry,” Liam whispers as dead eyes rove across him, unfocused and hungry. He rushes in before he lets himself really think about it and drives his claws into the soft spot at the nape of its neck. The O stops moving; its reaching hands falling to its sides lifelessly.

Liam pulls away quickly, lets the body drop to the ground at his feet “I’m sorry,” He whispers again as he takes a staggering step away, stomach rolling with nausea.

He stumbles backward, falls heavily to his ass on the cold ground. He turns he head back to look at Theo. The chimera is just behind him, eyes open wide and shiny with unshed tears. “Tara?”

Liam frowns at the quiet utterance of the name. It pulls at thoughts in the back of his head. He knows that name.

_Tara…Theo’s dead sister?_

Liam wipes his bloody hand off onto the lower part of his jeans, nose wrinkling at the dark smear of red it leaves behind on his already dirty and worn out jeans. He rolls over onto his knees and crawls towards Theo. Liam reaches for the boy, slow and cautious, trying not to startle him.

Theo flinches back and Liam freezes, hand in midair. Liam swallows loudly, nervous, and moves closer, his hands gripping onto the bottom of Theo’s sweater.

Liam doesn’t know what Theo’s Hell was like. He _does_ remember Theo’s face though when Liam had first brought him back. He also remembers Theo’s face in the hospital when he thought he was somewhere else. Theo’s wearing that same haunted expression right now as he stares at the O.

“It’s not her, Theo,” Liam whispers, trying to catch Theo’s eyes with his own. “This isn’t Hell, Theo.” Liam tries not to wince at his own words because it kind of is.

“But…” Theo says, mouth trembling.

The lost and broken expression on Theo's face breaks something in Liam’s chest; makes him want to hold tight to Theo and protect him from the world. 

“I—” Liam doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t know how to make Theo believe him when he barely believes himself.

“She wants it back,” Theo whispers, the chimera’s heart is like thunder in his chest. Liam has no idea what Theo is talking about, but fear and guilt cling to Theo’s scent. Liam tightens his hold on Theo’s sweater, he tries to ground himself, but his hands are trembling.

“I’m wearing a pink beanie,” Liam says a little helplessly like that alone explains everything Theo needs to know. “Why would I be wearing a pink beanie in your hell? Why would I even be in your hell? Are you trying to say I’m so annoying that I’d bother you in Hell, because that’s kind of rude, Theo?”

Liam’s voice is getting higher; more hysterical. His eyes feel hot and itchy in that way that means he’s close to tears. His jaw is starting to ache from the force of trying to hold himself together.  “Maybe _I’m_ in hell. Or crazy. Maybe, I’m just imagining you here, Theo. Maybe, I finally cracked on my own and I’m just sitting in the dirt talking to myself.”

“You’re not annoying,” Theo whispers absently, eyes focused on the unmoving body of the little O… The little girl. “That’s not why you’d be there.

Liam suddenly feels like laughing. His fingers are shaking against Theo’s waist. He’s not okay, not even a little bit. He thought maybe he could try to be; could pretend to be, could fool himself into believing it if nothing else. He failed.

“We’re so fucked up,” Liam laughs and it’s not a nice sound. It’s ragged and raw and he doesn’t know what to do or say anymore. His laughter feels and sounds more like crying. His face is cold and wet.

“I’m real,” Theo says quietly.

“Yeah,” Liam lets his head fall onto Theo’s shoulder. “Me too.”

Liam’s fingers are still tangled into Theo’s sweater. He doesn’t want to move them; doesn’t want to let the chimera go. Theo is so warm and tangible in this moment and Liam is terrified. He tilts his head to the side, nose brushing along Theo’s neck. Theo smells like cold sweat and earth, the bitter tinge of fear is slowly drifting away, but the guilt remains. It clings to the chimera’s skin like it’s ingrained into his scent; like it belongs there, and it makes Liam’s stomach clench.

“We’re going to be okay,” Liam murmurs into the warm skin. He doesn’t know who he’s trying to reassure, Theo or himself; he doesn’t think it matters at this point.

“Yeah,” Theo whispers head dropping to rest on top of Liam’s. He wraps his arms around Liam’s waist and pulls him in even closer until Liam is practically sitting in his lap, legs splayed across the chimera’s thighs. Theo’s shaking, and Liam knows it has absolutely nothing to do with the freezing wind gusting around them.

Liam finally disentangles his fingers from Theo’s sweater so that he can slip them around the chimera. He clings to Theo just as tightly.

They’ll be okay.

They have to be.

\---

They don’t talk about it when they finally pull apart.

They don’t talk about it when they gather their things from the ground and walk past the little O.

They don’t talk about it even though there are questions settled on the tip of Liam’s tongue begging to be set free. He doesn’t want to push Theo, but Liam needs to know what happened both in hell and when they were separated, but every time Liam turns to Theo to ask he ends up choking.

Theo looks like a blank slate as he walks beside Liam. Like all of his emotions and thoughts have been wiped away and now there is just nothingness. Theo’s always been a hard person to read, but Liam has been learning, so it’s unnerving to look at Theo and not see even a hint of what the chimera is thinking.

They continue to walk in silence long after the sun has set. Liam doesn’t know what to say to Theo, doesn’t know how to get any words to come out of his mouth. So, he doesn’t say anything. Neither of them does.

The silence is heavy with unspoken thoughts, but they carry it with them nonetheless.

\---

It’s been three days since they’ve spoken to one another. Three long days of blank stares and anxious heartbeats.

Liam doesn’t touch the puzzle book when they make camp. It’s quiet like it has been for the last few days. The only sound is the crackling of the fire Theo is stoking to life. It makes Liam’s heart clenches in fear and sadness that things are never going to be the same between them. That the lightness they held at the beginning of this journey has been burdened with shadows and the weight of the dead.

Liam closes his eyes, head thumping back against the trunk of the tree behind him. Slowly he slides down it to the ground and pulls his legs up to his chest. He rests his chin on his knee and breathes in slowly, holds it in his lungs and then exhales loudly.

Something heavy falls on his head and for a moment Liam panics that it’s a giant spider. It’s one of his more irrational fears. There aren’t spiders that big in North America, but still, he struggles beneath it, until he finds enough purchase to yank it off his head.

It’s his sleeping bag.

He looks up to see Theo staring down at him and Liam’s heart lurches.

_Theo is staring at Liam._

Like, really staring at him, instead of through him, for the first time in days. Theo glances over at the roaring fire and then drops down beside Liam. Their shoulders are brushing together, and it reminds Liam painfully of the night before Theo was bitten. They had been so close, so light before the shadows had dragged them down.

Liam peeks over at Theo, unsure of what to do. The chimera looks apprehensive, eyes shuttered and mouth set into a firm line. It’s the face Theo makes when he’s going to reveal something about himself and is terrified at the prospect of it all.

Liam turns his eyes away and settles them on the flickering flames of the fire a few feet in front of them. He waits quietly, nervous tension simmering beneath his skin. He has no idea what Theo is going to say, but he knows that if he looks at Theo right now then the chimera will lose what little courage he’s built up to speak.

 “I couldn’t breathe when you left,” Theo’s voice is so quiet Liam has to strain his ears to hear it. “I was choking on my own blood and…”

Theo sucks in a shaky breath.

Liam bites down roughly on his bottom lip. Without looking he slowly reaches out and takes one of Theo’s hands in his, fingers slotting comfortably between Theo’s. He keeps his eyes trained on the fire, Theo’s hand is sweaty and cold.

“I knew where I was going back…Who I was going back to…” Theo’s voice trembles and Liam squeezes his hand reassuringly.

“Hell was the hospital morgue for me,” Theo tells him, and Liam remembers Theo’s fear when they were in the morgue; remembers how Theo had admitted to thinking he was somewhere else for a moment. Theo had told him it was a bad dream.

“Hell was my sister hunting me through shadowy hallways, calling out my name over and over until she found me. It was Tara ripping out my heart and watching me die. It was an endless loop that I couldn’t escape no matter how hard I tried,” Theo whispers. “She always caught me.”

Liam can feel the trembling in his own body as he tries to picture what Theo had gone through.

“It’s her heart—It’s her heart and I let them take it from her, Liam, because I thought that’s what she wanted. I let my sister freeze to death in that river and I let them rip open her chest just so I could have her heart. I—I killed her.”

There’s a sound like a hiccoughing sob and Liam wants to turn his head, wants to look at Theo and say…Say something. Anything to make this better, but he knows Theo will shut down if he does. So, he waits because he knows Theo isn’t finished.

Liam can be patient even though his body aches with the need to pull Theo into him. He’ll wait because it’s what Theo needs from him right now and it’s Liam’s turn to save Theo. Even if it’s from himself.

“When... When I made you leave me in the woods,” Theo rasps. “I knew I was dying. The only thing I could feel anymore was pain, everywhere. I could feel the blood in my veins and the air in my lungs and it all felt like broken glass. I was scared, but…”

Liam can feel Theo looking at the side of his face and Liam knows it’s finally okay to look back at him. He meets Theo’s eyes slowly, they’re wet and shiny in the firelight, they no longer look empty or scared. They look impossibly large and vulnerable.

“I wasn’t scared of going back to Tara, it’s where I belong. I was scared of leaving you alone.”

Liam’s heart stutters and he knows that Theo hears it from the way his eyes drop down to his chest.

“Theo,” Liam whispers quietly. “Why did you think you were in hell?”

“Because,” Theo says eyes still on Liam’s chest. “Being alive and finding you seemed too good to be real.”

Theo lifts his eyes back up to meet Liam’s. “I thought I had made you up so that hell would be more bearable.”

“Why,” Liam asks without meaning to.

“You make things... better.”

Liam’s heart is pounding, and his face feels oddly warm beneath Theo’s dark eyes.

“Oh,” he says softly.

There’s a moment of tense silence, in which they just stare at each other, then Theo is carefully extracting his hand from Liam’s and pulling away. “You can have first watch.”

“Theo…” Liam trails off unsure of what to say as he watches Theo stand up.

Theo turns back to him, he’s nothing more than a shadow with the fire blazing behind his still form. Liam turns away, his heart is still pounding in his chest, nervous tension making his fingers tap against his knees. For a moment the words catch in his throat. He coughs and sets them free, voice low. “You make things better too.”

He can feel Theo’s eyes on him and he can hear the uptick in Theo’s heart, but he doesn’t turn back to look, he can’t, he’s not brave enough yet. His tongue feels heavy and clumsy in his mouth when he tells Theo goodnight.

“Yeah,” Theo says back, and his voice sounds a little too breathy. “Night.”

Liam’s heart doesn’t stop its hastened beating for a long time after that and despite the freezing temperature his face remains unduly warm buried in his arms.

_You make things… Better._

\---

“We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” Theo says when they pass the _Welcome to Colorado_ sign and it startles a laugh from Liam.

It hasn’t been silent since their talk, but their every attempt at conversation has been heavy and stilted. Neither of them know how to broach a neutral topic without it coming across as forced. Liam hasn’t been able to meet Theo’s eyes, his gaze falling just past Theo’s head every time he looks at the chimera. He doesn’t mean to, it’s just that his heart keeps trying to beat itself from his chest. Theo’s words keep playing through his head. Liam is dying to ask what Theo meant when he said Liam makes things better. If anything, Liam has made things worse for Theo.

Liam glances over at Theo incredulously, mouth still parted on a laugh and Theo immediately looks defensive.

“What,” The chimera snaps. “I’ve seen The Wizard of Oz.”

“You’re actually a dork, aren’t you,” Liam grins, dropping his gaze down to the ground as they walk.

He’s not expecting Theo to reach out and shove him, but the chimera does and Liam stumbles into a thicket of dead vines with a yelp of surprise and falls.

“You, asshole,” Liam grumbles trying to disentangle himself.

Theo’s laughing, it’s quiet but unreserved and Liam goes silent and still at the sound of it. He blinks up in surprise at Theo, a small smile working its way onto his face as he stares up at the chimera. Theo smiles back, it’s nothing more than a small twitch at the corner of his lips, but it’s enough. Theo leans over and holds out a hand to help Liam up and Liam takes it gratefully. Theo’s hand is warm and dry, and Liam wants to hold onto it even after he’s back on his feet.

Liam lets go, but he sees the way Theo curls that same hand into itself like he’s trying to preserve the heat from Liam’s palm. Liam jerks his gaze up to Theo’s face, but Theo isn’t looking at him. Theo’s head is tilted up to the sky, chest expanding as he breathes deeply. A soft hum slips from his lips.

“What is it,” Liam asks curiously as he watches Theo.

“It smells like snow,” Theo says dropping his head and looking at Liam.

Liam has to look away, he pretends it’s because he’s scenting the air. Even though he’s no longer looking at Theo, he can feel the weight of the chimera’s eyes on him. He swallows nervously and takes a deep shuddery breath. He can smell the woods around them, he can smell Theo and something crisp that he thinks might be the scent of snow. He sucks in another deep breath, eyes falling closed as he focuses his senses. He wrinkles his forehead in concentration. There’s something else, further away and annoyingly familiar, but he can’t put a name to the smell. It makes his hackles want to raise and it twists his stomach with nerves.

 “I’ve never seen snow in real life,” Liam admits to Theo, finally turning back to him. He pushes the familiar smell away from his thoughts.

Theo’s staring at him strangely, lips parted like he’s seconds away from speaking.

“What,” Liam asks and forces himself not to look away.

“You…” Theo says slowly, then shakes his head, eyes drifting over Liam’s head. He clears his throat. “You’ve never seen snow?”

“Just in movies,” Liam shrugs.

Theo smirks. It’s nothing like his smirk before the bite, but it’s better than the haunted look that’s been plaguing his eyes. “It’s nowhere near as nice as it looks in the movies.”

“It’s cold, obviously,” Liam rolls his eyes. “But how bad can a little snow be?”

“It’s also wet and annoying,” Theo adds as he turns around and starts walking again. “So, hurry up getting caught in a snowstorm is the last thing we need.”

Liam glances back towards where that strange familiar smell is coasting on the wind. Snow sounds like it might be a problem, but Liam is pretty sure that whatever that smell is is the last thing they need.

He rubs his cold hands together and hurries after Theo.

\---

Theo was right which hurts Liam’s pride a little to admit, especially when the chimera is sending him somewhat knowing and smug looks every so often over his shoulder.

The snow isn’t _just_ cold. It’s _freezing,_ and it melts on Liam’s face, turns to water and dampens his clothes making him freeze even more. What’s worse is that it seems to be getting everywhere on his person.

“Shut up, Theo,” Liam says through his chattering teeth and wrinkles his nose when snow slips into his mouth. For something that melts into water, it makes him feel oddly parched. His lips are chapped and cracked, and they burn. He should have thought about Chapstick the last time they were in a store and gloves. His fingers feel like ice cubes where they’re resting in the large front pocket of his hoodie. Every part of his body is either numb or achingly cold.

He’s from southern California. He doesn’t deserve this foul treatment.

“Come on, Littlewolf,” Theo says brightly, even though he looks just as frozen as Liam feels. There snow clinging to his face, making his beard look white. “The map shows a camping area nearby, there’s probably some cabins around.”

“Cabins,” Liam repeats, hope burning like a little flame in his stomach.

Theo slows down so that Liam can catch up to him and nods. “Yeah, we’ll find one and wait out the snow storm.”

Liam is ecstatic at the possibility. He’s pretty sure that if he’s out here much longer he’s going to lose a toe or two. And, despite werewolf healing a toe is probably not going to grow back like Scott’s eyes did.

\---

“Hurry up,” Liam whines as he shivers behind Theo. He’s trying not to crowd up against the chimera, but he’s quite possibly freezing to death.

“I’m trying,” Theo grumbles. “This isn’t exactly easy, you know.”

Liam huffs in frozen frustration, a pale cloud of breath hangs around his face. He doesn’t say anything else, though, just waits and watches as Theo picks the lock with a single claw. Liam would be more impressed if he could feel his toes at all.

Finally, the cabin door swings open with a satisfying click and a squeaking of cold hinges; it smells of stale air and dust. They slip inside both beating the snow from their shoes and shoulders near the doorway as they glance around. Sunlight filters in through the open door allowing them to see. The cabins not very large, nothing more than a single room, but it’s practically a mansion compared to what they’ve become accustomed to. Everything in the room is covered in large white sheets. It gives the cabin an eerie abandoned feeling.

“That’s not creepy or anything,” Liam mutters to himself as he fully takes stock of the room.

Theo snorts out a quiet laugh as he steps deeper into the cabin, one hand running along a sheet-covered table.

“This is what you think is creepy,” Theo says. “We’re in a zombie apocalypse, but dusty sheets are what scares you.”

“I didn’t say they scare me,” Liam says petulantly as he shivers in the doorway. “I just said it’s creepy looking. Like a haunted house or something.”

Theo glances over his shoulder and rolls his eyes. He tugs on the sheet beneath his hand and a cloud of dust billows up to greet him.

Liam snickers into his fist when Theo sneezes several times in a row. The chimera shoots him a watery-eyed glare and balls up the dusty old sheet into his hands to throw at Liam’s head. Theo misses by a few inches, but the dust from the sheet still tickles at Liam’s nose and causes him to sneeze as well.

Theo looks smug standing there next to the table, eyes watery and cheeks bright pink with cold. _He’s pretty_ , Liam realizes with a start as he stares at Theo. Even dressed in the oversized Kansas hoodie and atrocious pink beanie Theo is _pretty._

“Are you going to help or just stand there all day?”

Liam blinks rapidly and clears his throat, eyes dropping down to his snow-covered shoes. He stomps his feet again to loosen the packed snow and nods his head.

“Yeah, I’ll help,” Liam murmurs as he ventures further into the dark, cozy cabin.

Liam digs his numb fingers into the large sheet draped over the bed and tugs it up while holding his breath. Dust particles glisten in the air when the fading sunlight catches them through the open door. Liam quickly balls up the sheet and tosses it where the other is laying. They look like melting snow puddles on the dark wood floor. He releases the breath he was holding when the dust finally settles enough so that he won't start sneezing again.

“There’s chopped wood,” Theo says from behind him. Liam turns and sees the chimera standing near the stone fireplace a sheet balled up in his hands. Theo glances over at him. “Throw me your lighter.”

Liam shrugs off his backpack, it hits the floor with a dull thud and he drops to his knees beside it to rummage inside for the lighter. He pulls it out and tosses it over to Theo who’s down on his knees in front of the fireplace now, hands carefully stacking logs on the grate. Theo lifts a hand quickly and catches the lighter before it smacks into the stone.

Liam struggles back up to his feet and hurries over to the open cabin door. He pokes his head out of it and sniffs at the air. There’s only the scent of snow and pine, the strange smell that’s been ghosting around them is gone or covered by the storm. Liam frowns out at the heavily falling flurries of snowflakes. He shuts the door on the storm and locks it. The room is enveloped in darkness and silence, the only sound is Liam’s chattering teeth and the _snick snick_ of Theo using the lighter.

A pleased noise escape’s Theo’s mouth when one of the logs finally catches, a trail of fire bursting to life along its dry skin and carrying it’s flame to the logs above it. Theo glances over his shoulder at Liam and frowns, his dark eyes looking Liam up and down. He stands up slowly.

“Take off your clothes,” Theo tells him as he tugs off his hoodie, the pink beanie on his head falling to the floor with a wet slap.

Liam’s eyes widen in surprise and he takes a half step back. “What?”

Theo shakes his hair away from his face and wrinkles his nose as he undoes the button of his jeans. “Your clothes are wet, Liam, they need to dry.”

“Oh,” Liam says quietly because of course, that’s what Theo meant. “Right.”

Liam turns away and plucks at the damp hoodie. It clings uncomfortably to him. He tugs it off slowly and drops it to the floor. The sweater he’s wearing is just as damp and uncomfortable, so he tugs it off too, leaving him bare-chested. He fiddles nervously with the button of his jeans before sucking in a calming breath and just undoing it. Theo’s seen him in various states of undress, this is no different than any of those time. So, what if he’s just now realized he finds Theo attractive.

He tries to kick the jeans off only to realize that he’s still wearing his shoes.

There’s a quiet laugh from behind him and then a warm hand grips his bare waist.

“Hold still,” Theo murmurs as he moves to stand in front of Liam, his hand caressing Liam’s damp skin as he moves around. Theo has a fond smile on his face as he kneels in front of Liam.

Liam raises his eyes to the ceiling and tries to keep his thoughts as pure as possible as Theo lifts one of his feet to pull at his shoe. Liam wobbles on one foot, his hands shooting out to grip tightly at Theo’s shoulders. Liam drops his gaze back down to Theo and flushes when Theo glances up at him one hand wrapped around Liam’s ankle.

Theo’s face is mostly in shadow, but Liam can see the curiosity in his dark eyes perfectly. Liam feels like all the air has been punched out of his lungs.

“You okay,” Theo asks, a single brow raising inquiringly. He releases Liam’s ankle and sits back on his haunches.

“Yeah, fine, uh, thanks,” Liam rasps out haltingly.

He hurriedly steps out of his jeans and turns around to grab at his wet clump of sweaters. Theo’s clothes are already laid out near the fire, so Liam shakes out his hoodie and sweater and lays them beside Theo’s on the stone hearth.

It feels like his bones are thawing as he stands near the fireplace, warmth sinking deep into his skin. Liam can hear the creaking of hinges as Theo wanders around the small cabin pulling open cabinets and drawers. Liam turns to watch him silently. Theo’s eyes are gold as he curiously pokes around in the shadows.

Forcing himself to look away Liam walks over to the bundle of duty sheets and carefully shakes them out and folds them. He lays them in front of the fireplace so that he and Theo can sit on them and warm up. Liam settles himself down in front of the fireplace on the sheets and holds out his hands, they ache from hours of being cold and his toes tingle as they slowly regain feeling.

Theo drops down onto the pile of sheets beside him, backpack in his hands.

“Find anything,” Liam asks peeking over at him.

Theo shakes his head. “Nothing useful.”

He digs around in the backpack and pulls out a bag of stale potato chips and the puzzle book. Theo glances over at him looking uncharacteristically nervous. Liam watches as he taps the book against his bare thigh.

“Do you want to…” Theo says trailing off like he’s not sure how to ask Liam if he wants to do a puzzle. It’s been a while since they even touched the book.

Liam takes the bag of chips from Theo’s other hand and sets it down between them. “Please pick on that’s not about science,” Liam says by way of an answer.

The stiff set to Theo’s shoulders eases. “You should have paid better attention in high school.”

“I was busy being a hero.”

“Excuses,” Theo hums as he flips through the puzzle book. He stops on a page and both his brows raise in mock surprise. “Oh, look, a science one.”

Liam rolls his eyes fondly and shoves a handful of disgusting chips into his mouth. He makes sure to crunch on them extra loud. 

\---

“You should go to sleep,” Theo insists after Liam tries to fight off a yawn for the third time in the last half hour. “I’ll take the first watch.”

Liam glances over at the bed, it’s big enough for two people to sleep comfortably, then he looks over at the locked cabin door. They’re not outside where wild animals and hungry O’s can corner them. There’s no point in them taking turns for a watch when they’re safe within the cabin walls. 

“You don’t have to take watch tonight, we’re safe inside,” Liam tells him logically. “Besides we both could use a full night of sleep for once.”

Liam stands and stretches. He feels drowsy and warm from sitting so long in front of the fire. He turns his head to find Theo staring at him, so he drops his arms back to his sides and narrows his eyes defensively. “What?”

Theo shakes his head and looks away, eyes dropping to the floor. “Nothing, you’re right.” Theo plucks at the sheets beneath him. “Take the bed, I’ll sleep here.”

Liam frowns down at the chimera in confusion. “Why? The bed is big enough for the two of us to share, and it’ll be warmer.”

Theo turns back to him, surprise alight in his eyes. His face goes through a complicated ripple of emotions before settling on something akin to hesitation. “Liam…”

“What,” Liam asks turning and making his way over to the bed. He flops back on it and sighs happily when the soft mattress sinks beneath his weary body. He rolls over onto his side and stares up at Theo. “Come on, Raeken, before I change my mind and make you sleep on the floor. I still don’t forgive you for throwing a brain at me, you know?”

There’s a beat of silence then Theo snorts in amusement as he stuffs the puzzle book back into the bag. “It’s been months, Liam. Let that go.”

“Never,” Liam says adamantly as he crawls beneath the wooly blanket. It’s an itchy stretch of fabric; thick and warm.

Theo slips into the bed beside him and Liam has a sudden realization that the bed isn’t all the big after all. It fits two people, but there’s little to no room between them.

“Grudgeholder,” Theo calls him, pulling the blanket up to his chin and burrowing down into the mattress like a puppy.

“Yeah,” Liam croaks, mouth going dry when Theo finally stops moving and it’s just the two of them looking at one another in near darkness.

A tense silence envelopes them as awkwardness settles itself in the sliver of space between them. Liam wants to break it, but he doesn’t know what to say. He opens his mouth twice and closes it. He swallows past the lump in his throat as he wracks his brains for words, _any words._

“You smell horrible,” He says at last and wants to punch himself in the face.

_Not those words._

Theo’s brows lift in surprise, a sardonic little smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. “You don’t exactly smell summer fresh either, Dunbar.”

Liam’s mouth falls open at the insult. He narrows his eyes. “I smell better than you,” He insists.

“Yeah, yeah,” Theo chuckles as he rolls onto his other side, facing away from Liam. “Keep telling yourself that, Littlewolf.”

Liam glares at the back of his head and debates on whether or not he should reach out and flick the irritating chimera.

“Stop glaring at me and go to sleep,” Theo says. “You’re the one that said we could both use it.”

Liam makes a face at him that Theo obviously doesn’t see, but Liam is sure the chimera knows he did it anyway. He rolls over onto his other side as well. Theo’s bare back presses against his own, it’s smooth and warm; a line of heat down Liam’s spine. He feels oddly safe like this even though he’s practically naked. He feels safe and warm lying next to Theo, and it’s so nice because he feels like he’s been cold and terrified for months now. Liam burrows deeper down, hands tucked beneath his chin, and closes his eyes.

He’d been lying when he said Theo smelled bad. Sure, he smells like sweat and exhaustion, but there’s still that underlying rich scent that’s uniquely Theo. It’s a nice scent; comforting. It envelops him and reassures him that things might really be okay. 

It’s the fastest Liam’s ever fallen asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so, very sorry that this took a month to write and post.  
> I'm also sorry that this chapter is fairly boring and anti-climatic.  
> The next chapter will be much better and will be out much faster.


	9. We Should Have Stayed in Bed

Liam wakes slowly, blinking up at the ceiling in bleary-eyed confusion at the warm weight pressing against his side. The room is washed in a soft blue glow and riddled with shadows as the winter morning sun filters in through the dusty windows. Hair tickles the underside of Liam’s chin and the stretch of his neck. Soft breath gusts across the skin of his chest, warm and sleep slow. Liam shifts tiredly, tilting his head down to stare at Theo who has his head tucked beneath Liam’s chin and an arm thrown around Liam’s middle.

The chimera is pressed along Liam’s side, a delicious warmth radiating from his bare skin to Liam’s. Liam has an arm wrapped around the chimera’s shoulders, he brushes his fingers across the skin beneath his palm, but doesn’t feel it. His arm is long since numb from Theo sleeping on it, still, he doesn’t stop moving his fingers in lazy little circles along Theo’s shoulder and down the exposed planes of his back.

Liam feels like he should be freaking out more about this; about their nearly naked bodies pressed so tightly against one another but all he’s capable of right now is reveling in the warmth Theo gives off and the sense of safeness he feels in laying here within this cabin. 

He tilts his head further to watch the steady rise and fall of Theo’s back as he breathes. He can’t see Theo’s face from this angle, but he wishes he could. He likes how soft Theo looks when he sleeps; how young and uninhibited his face becomes when he’s not trying to hide himself away.

A yawn builds up in the back of Liam’s throat that he tries to bite back, but it still manages to slip out. His breath stirring the messy strands of Theo’s hair. Fingers twitch along his ribs as Theo curls and unfurls his hand in sleepy little spasms. Liam can feel the moment Theo starts to wake up. Theo’s body tenses up against him in tiny noticeable increments until Liam feels like he’s sharing a bed with a stone statue.

Liam lets his arm fall away from Theo’s shoulder; it’s still uncomfortably numb.

“Morning,” Liam says quietly, breath hanging above his face like a tiny pale cloud. His tongue feels heavy and slow in his mouth.

Theo stops breathing, his breath ceasing to ghost hotly along Liam's skin. Liam should have just shut his eyes and gone back to sleep, or at the very least pretended like he wasn't awake yet instead of talking. It's too late to take back his words now though, they're both obviously awake and the longer neither of them speak the longer the awkwardness will be drawn out. Liam gathers his courage and ignores the hastened beating of his heart as he sucks in a breath. 

“Theo?”

Theo pulls away stiffly, his fingers dragging over Liam’s chest, leaving a trail of fire in their wake. The chimera's expression is inscrutable as he stares up at Liam, eyes dark and emotions hidden.

Liam licks his lips nervously as they continue to stare at one another. 

“Uh,” Liam breathes at a loss for something clever to say which isn’t all that different from any other moment. “Did you sleep okay?”

A tiny wrinkle appears between Theo’s brows and Liam’s caught a little off guard by how much he wants to reach out and smooth it away with his thumb.

“Yeah,” Theo says haltingly, his voice low and rough with sleep. “You?”

“Yeah.” Liam bobs his head up and down a few times before he feels like an idiot and stops. He clears his throat and casts around in his head for something else to say and prays that his brain comes up with something less offensive than it had the night before. 

“I, uh, think you killed my arm, though,” Liam says nodding at his arm because Theo is still laying on it and Liam still can’t feel it other than a dull, tingling ache. 

Theo blinks several times in surprise, his eyes following Liam's down to where Liam's arm disappears beneath Theo.

“Oh.” He leans up so that Liam can pull his arm out from underneath him then he flops back down onto the bed, his expression guarded. "Sorry."

Sharp pinpricks alight beneath Liam’s skin as he regains feeling in his arm. He winces, pumping his hand several times to hurry along the spread of circulation. "It's cool, no worries."

The room is cold, the fire long since dead. Liam hopes that their clothes dried before the fire went out. His shoes were practically puddles when Theo pried them from his feet. Liam is already dreading slipping back into his clothes then venturing outside into the freezing world. He doesn’t want to leave the warm haven of this bed yet, or ever, really.

“We should go,” Theo says, his eyes are fixed on the ceiling like it's made of answers instead of wood.

Liam sighs, he knows they should; he knows they still have a long way to go, but he really doesn't want to. Not yet. 

“Do we have to,” He asks and hopes he doesn't sound like a small, whiny child. 

Theo tips his head to look at him. “Didn’t you want to make it home before Christmas?”

Liam rolls onto his back and frowns, his fingers tap an irregular beat against his bare chest. The cold air slips in beneath the blanket and his nipples pebble uncomfortably. His frown deepens.

“Yes, but it’s already December and we’re still really far away. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“Might, if you stopped being a lazy shit,” Theo hums out.

Liam’s fingers stop tapping. He turns his head and narrows his eyes at Theo.

“Yeah, because me not wanting to leave the bed is why we won’t make it to Beacon Hills on time,” Liam says dryly. “And not because you decided to die a little.”

Liam regrets the words the moment he says them, but Theo doesn’t look all that bothered by them. In fact, he looks a little amused by Liam’s turn of phrase.

“A _little_ ,” Theo repeats, eyebrows raising incredulously.

“Yeah,” Liam nods his head twice. “A _little_.”

“How does one die _a little_ , Liam?” Theo looks like he’s expecting the worlds stupidest answer.

Liam is annoyed because he doesn’t have a stupid answer, he’s also annoyed because he doesn’t really have an answer at all.

“Shut up, Theo,” he grumbles and tugs the blanket over his head. He’s not getting up yet and Theo can’t make him.

“So, mature,” Theo snickers and Liam has to qualm the urge to poke his head back out just to stick out his tongue at Theo.

Liam closes his eyes and breathes deeply, he’s still tired, body loose and relaxed in the cocoon of warmth. He feels heavy and sleepy, he could honestly use a few more house of rest before going out into the frozen Hellscape of Colorado.

“Liam,” Theo says patiently from outside of the blanket, his tone reminiscent of all of Liam’s grade school teachers.

Liam hums at him drowsily his eyes staying closed and head staying beneath the covers.

“We need to go,” Theo tells him, making no move to leave the bed. Liam’s fairly certain Theo doesn’t actually want to leave either.

A tiny pitiful whine escapes Liam at the thought of crawling out from beneath the blanket and exposing himself to the frigid winter air. He reaches out blindly, the cold air assaulting the skin of his arm as he searches for Theo’s hand. His palm lands on the chimera’s bicep and he runs it down to Theo’s wrist and tugs until Theo lifts his arm up so that Liam can pull the blanket up over the chimera’s head and seal them both beneath it.

 “Not yet,” Liam murmurs, eyes fluttering open as he rolls onto his side to face Theo. 

“Please,” Liam breathes out imploringly, his thumb brushing along the skin of Theo’s wrist.

There’s a moment of silence in the dark, Liam’s eyes drifting across the darkened planes of Theo’s face as he waits for an answer. It seems infinitely hotter now with both of them safely tucked away beneath the covers. Liam fights to keep his eyes open as he waits for Theo's answer. 

“Okay,” Theo says quietly, expression unreadable as he stares at Liam through the darkness. Liam can feel the warmth of his breath caress the side of his cheek as he speaks.

“We can stay here a little while longer," Theo tells him. 

Liam makes a small noise of happiness and squeezes Theo’s wrist gently as his eyes fall closed again. He means to say to _thank you_ , but he can feel the steady thrum of Theo’s pulse beneath his fingertips and hear the soothing beat of Theo’s heart, it lulls him back to sleep before he can remember how to open his mouth.

\---

“Liam it's time to wake up.”

“No, it's not," Liam grumbles into his blanket.

There’s a heavy sigh and then a cold finger is pressing against his cheek repeatedly.

“Liam. Liam. Liam,” Theo repeats with every poke. “Wake up, you lazy little shit.”

Liam smacks at Theo’s hand and pries his eyes open to glare up at Theo. The chimera is leaning over the bed, fully dressed and looking like he’s moments away from smothering Liam with one of the dusty pillows. Liam wouldn’t put it past him to try.

“I hate you,” Liam mutters up at him and Theo grins having no doubt heard the skipped beat in the rhythm of his heart.

“Lie,” Theo sings out, he pinches Liam’s cheek and then straightens back up. “You can’t live without me, Littlewolf.”

Liam says nothing in response, just huffs out a put-upon sigh and rolls from the bed because any sort of denial he would try to make would undoubtedly be a lie. He sucks in a sharp breath when his bare feet make contact with the cold wood of the floor. Theo looks decisively smug at the lack of response when Liam looks up at him so he flips him off as he hurries towards the fireplace where all of his clothes are resting. The fires burning in the hearth again filling the room with a warm-yellow light.

“It’s already past noon,” Theo tells him as Liam snatches up his jeans. They are blessedly dry and warm to the touch, Liam's never been so thankful for fire in his life. 

Liam steps into his jeans, does up the zipper, and glances over at Theo. “Did you go back to sleep?”

“No,” Theo tells him flopping down on the bed and closing his eyes while he waits for Liam to get dressed. “Unlike you, I am _not_ completely lazy.”

“But you are an asshole,” Liam informs him as he drops down to sit on the floor and tug his socks and shoes onto his freezing feet. “You know, in case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t,” Theo says blandly pushing himself up and staring down at Liam. “But thanks, anyway for reminding me. I _almost_ forgot.”

Liam grins up at him as he ties his shoes. "Anytime."

\---

Neither of them are happy about venturing out into the snow again, but they do it anyway. Thankfully, the snow had stopped falling sometime in the night. Unthankfully, it hadn’t decided to stop until it could reach halfway up Liam’s shins, leaving the legs of his jeans soaked from the knee down.

Liam huffs in annoyance. He’s always wanted to see snow like this, has always wanted to have snowball fights and build snowmen and igloos and go sledding, but this is just frustrating. He slips on a hidden patch of ice and falls to his knees for the third time in as many hours. A growl of irritation rumbles from his lips as he glares at the glittering white of the world around him. He wants to say fuck this and hobble his way back to the cabin where he was safe and warm. He and Theo can wait out the winter there, then try traveling again when spring comes and there’s not snow everywhere.

A pout forms itself on Liam’s face as he stares at Theo’s back. The chimera seems to be completely unhindered by the high snow drifts.

It’s unfair.

Liam once again finds himself thinking that he doesn’t deserve this foul treatment. He’s a Cali kid for fuck's sake. He is not built for this type of torment, werewolf or not.

Sitting back on his haunches, he breathes in the crisp air of the morning and reaches out to dig his fingers into the soft powdery snow in front of him. He slowly starts to pack it into a ball, numb fingers adding more and more snow until it’s bigger than two of his fists.

Theo has doubled back and is standing just a few feet away watching him with an expression somewhere between criticism and concern.

“What the hell are you doing,” Theo finally asks after several long moments of judgmental silence.

Liam spares him a quick glance before dropping his eyes back down to the growing ball in his hands. “What does it look like?”

“It looks like you’ve finally lost it,” Theo tells him dryly, folding his arms over his chest and cocking a hip to the side.

Liam rolls his eyes. “I’m building a snowman, Theo.”

“ _Why_?”

“Why not,” Liam counters pausing in his packing of snow to grin up at Theo. “We’re in a literal zombie apocalypse and the last few weeks have been ridiculously rough. So, I am going to sit here and play in the snow.”

“You’re _going_ to get all wet and then you’re going to complain for the rest of the day,” Theo says exasperation coloring his tone. “And, I will not have any sympathy for you when you do.”

Liam nods his head in easy agreement because he _definitely_ will. “It’ll be worth it though, this is my first time building a snowman.” 

Theo’s forehead wrinkles in thought as he steps closer, the snow crunching beneath his feet. “Then, how do you know you’re doing it right?”

Liam frowns down at his hands in confusion. “Is this not how you do it,” He tilts his head thoughtfully. "Is there even a wrong way to build a snowman?"

“I don’t know,” Theo shrugs. “I’ve never built one.”

Liam lifts his head to stare at Theo. “I thought you lived around snow before… I mean, you knew what it smelled like when we first got to Colorado.”

Theo glances away, his shoulders hunching up defensively. “Doesn’t mean I had time to play with snow, Liam. I was kind of busy doing _other_ things.”

“Like?”

Theo turns back to him, expression bland. “Plotting murder and chaos.”

“Right,” Liam says succinctly.

He bites down on his lip, nails digging into the hard snow in his hand. He sometimes forgets that Theo wasn’t always the person standing in front of him now, that Theo was evil and dangerous and not just this grumpy asshole who likes to make jokes at Liam’s expense. He forgets because this version of Theo is so very different from the Theo he had first met. He’s softer, tangible in a way he hadn’t been before this journey home, or, maybe he had been, and Liam just wasn’t paying attention before now. All Liam really knows is that _this_ Theo is someone he very much needs in his life and he thinks—hopes really— that he’s someone Theo needs in his life too. 

A small smile works its way onto Liam’s face. “Hey, Theo...do you want to build a snowman?”

There’s a moment of silence in which Theo narrows his eyes in suspicion at Liam, his hands pushing deep into the large pocket of his hoodie. “Why does it feel like you’re referencing something?”

Liam snorts out a fond laugh.

“Just come over here, Dumbass, and help me make a snowman.”

\---

“It’s…” Liam frowns, staring critically at their snowman, one eye nearly closed in a squint like it’ll help with what exactly he’s looking at. 

It doesnt.

“Hideous,” Theo says sounding positively delighted. Liam huffs out a breath, but he’s smiling too.

Their snowman is completely abysmal if Liam is being honest with himself. It’s lopsided and oddly lumpy and for some reason, the middle had ended up smaller than the head. He’s seen countless movies where small children have made snowmen and yet somehow both he and Theo have failed spectacularly.

“It should be put out of its misery,” Liam mumbles reaching out to shove its massive head from its delicate shoulders.

Theo grabs him by the back of his hood and pulls him away from the snowman. “Touch him and die, Dunbar.”

Liam flails a hand at the ugly pile of snow. “But, look at him Theo, he doesn’t want to live like this. Come on, I’ll make it quick, I promise.”

Theo snorts, but he doesn’t release Liam. They stand there in horrified admiration for the beast they created together. Liam has to fight back the urge to shut his eyes and cringe.

The snowman is wearing Liam’s Camo ball cap on top of its bulbous head. The green clashes terribly with the makeshift red scarf Theo has draped around its neck. It’s arms consist of two very small sticks and it’s nose is a smashed pine cone Liam has unearthed from beneath the snow. The eyes are just two tiny bits of red cloth stuck deep into the face making the snowman look either high as hell or like it’s possed. It’s honestly the stuff of nightmares.

“He’s fine,” Theo insists still clutching at Liam’s hoodie like he doesn’t trust Liam not to go in for the kill.

Liam rolls his eyes.

“Fine, fine, I’ll let your ugly snow child live,” Liam huffs batting at Theo to make him let go.

“ _Our_ ugly snow child,” Theo corrects releasing Liam. “You helped make him, Dunbar, take responsibility like a good father.”

Theo lets out a long-suffering sigh, the corners of his lips twitching in a way that lets Liam know he’s about to be insulted. “It _is_ a shame though, that he takes after you so much in the looks department.”

Liam twists around and scowls at him before leaning down and scooping some snow into his already stinging hands.

“What are you doing now,” Theo asks curiously.

“Nothing,” Liam lies turning around and throwing the snow directly at Theo’s face. It lands with a wet smack and Theo’s hands shoot up to his face to wipe it away.

“What the fuck, Dunbar?” Theo’s voice is muffled by his palms. It sounds somewhere between astounded at Liam’s audacity and prepared for murder.

Liam grins at him and scoops more snow into his hands. He balls it up never taking his eyes off of Theo. “Sorry, don’t think I could hear you under all that snow, Theo.”

Theo glares over at him, hands falling from his face. “Don’t you dare.”

“Oh, I _dare_ , Raeken, remember the brain, it’s payback time.” Liam laughs with unconcealed mirth when he throws the ball of snow and watches as it lands with perfect accuracy.

The look Theo gives him is positively withering and Liam enjoys every second of it as the snow drips down off of Theo’s face. He grins smugly over at Theo and scoops more snow into his hand. Theo holds up a warning hand, finger pointing at Liam threateningly. “Don’t.”

Liam ignores him completely. He throws the third snowball once again at Theo’s angry face, but it misses by a hairsbreadth and lands with a muted _shh_ sound somewhere behind the vengeful chimera.

“Oh, it’s on, Dunbar,” Theo bares his teeth like a hungry wolf at Liam then dips down to snatch up a fistful of snow. He pacts it together into a ball while Liam runs for cover, feet slipping in the snow and making him slow like someone running in a dream.

There’s a sharp smack against the back of Liam’s head that surprises him so much he loses his footing and topples face first into the mountain of cold whiteness. A growl of frustration leaves him as he staggers back up to his feet, he turns to glare at Theo.

Theo sends him a look of faux innocence and launches another large snowball at Liam that hits him squarely in the chest, knocking the breath from his lungs and causing him to stumble back onto his ass.

Theo laughs loudly. “Having trouble staying on your feet, Liam?”

“No,” Liam wheezes and struggles back up to his feet, trying not to slip and lose his footing again as Theo bends to make another snowball.

Liam runs as quickly and carefully as he can towards the trees hoping to use them as a line of defense against Theo. He glances over his shoulder, but no longer sees Theo behind him. He freezes in place, head swiveling around in search of the sneaky chimera. His panting breaths and thudding heart drown out most of the sounds as he listens for the crunch of snow underfoot.

There’s a snapping noise, like the breaking of a twig from his left and Liam jerks to his right without hesitation and runs for safety like a frightened rabbit.

Theo lunges through the air, arms wrapping snuggly around Liam’s waist, dragging him down. Liam lets out a horrified squawk as they crash into a large snowbank earning him a mouthful of snow in the process. He scrabbles at the powdery white flakes beneath him trying to pull himself free from under Theo.

“I’m sorry,” Liam yelps when Theo tugs at the neckline of his sweater, despite being completely unapologetic at all. “Theo! No! Don’t!”

“Too late, Dunbar,” Theo sings out gleefully and shoves a handful of snow down the back of Liam’s clothes.

The cold, wet, snow slides along his exertion-heated skin melting and seeping into his clothes. Liam bites out a loud curse at the feeling of it and bucks back against Theo roughly. He gets enough leeway to pull himself partially out from beneath Theo and roll onto his back. He scoops up two fistfuls of snow and throws it loosely at Theo’s face in an attempt to catch him off guard enough to slip away fully and run. It doesn’t work though.

Theo shakes his head to dislodge some of the powder from his face even as he reaches out for Liam and grasps both of his wrists. He sends Liam a terrifying grin. “You’re going to regret that Liam.”

Liam already does. Theo looks like a predator bearing down on its prey right now. A tendril of fear rolls down Liam’s spine like the snow melting down his shirt.

“Parley!” Liam screeches making Theo pause, a laugh bursts from the chimera’s lips as he sits back on Liam’s thighs, hands still wrapped tight around Liam’s wrists, dragging them with him.

“What even—” Theo continues to laugh and Liam is torn between being embarrassed and being proud of the uninhibited laughter he's caused. “You’re not a pirate, Liam.”

Liam’s face feels warm as Theo sits on him, he wonders if it’s as red as it feels and whether or not Theo will notice it’s not entirely from the cold.

Theo’s still too busy laughing though, head tilted back showing the long line of his throat from beneath his hoodie.

“Shut up and get off me,” Liam grumbles trying to tug his arms free. “You’re heavy you asshole.”

Theo releases him then tips to the side and falls onto the soft snow next to Liam. His mouth curves up into an overly amused grin. He’s laughing quietly now, hot puffs of breath hanging in the air around him. His face is bright pink from the cold and exertion. His hood had slipped off at some point during the fight so there’s snow in his hair clinging to the strands and dampening it. Liam reaches out without thinking to brush it away, his hand pushing the wet strands away from Theo’s eyes, before sliding down to Theo’s face. His cheek is cold beneath Liam’s palm as he trails his thumb along the high of Theo’s cheek where its reddest.

Theo’s breath stutters on his next exhale and Liam jerks his hand back to himself and stuffs it into his pocket.

Liam clears his throat awkwardly and looks away. His mouth starts to move without his express permission like it usually does when he feels awkward or tense.

“You don’t have to be a pirate to use parley, it’s just a discussion over whether or not we agree to an armistice like the one decided in 1918 between—”

Liam cuts himself off when he notices Theo is staring at him, the corners of his lips curled into a ghost of a smile.

“What?” Liam huffs defensively and turns away again to stare up at the pale blue of the sky, there's several misty looking clouds passing by. 

“You’re a complete nerd when it comes to history, Liam,” Theo murmurs. “It’s impressive how much you retain about the past.”

Liam’s mouth goes dry at the compliment, it's not the first time Liam has impressed him, but it’s always surprising to find that he’s capable of it.

“But,” Theo drawls out, body shifting around and Liam can't stop his eyes from jerking towards the chimera curiously. “I didn’t agree to a parley or an armistice or whatever you want to call it.”

Liam frowns. “What does that mea—”

A handful of snow whacks him on the cheek and he squeaks in surprise. “Theo!”

Theo laughs triumphantly and sits up. “Now, we can have an armistice,” He says smugly. "Since I won." 

Liam swipes a hand at the snow on his face, it clings to his eyelashes and burns his eyes, but he still peels them open enough to glare at the gleeful chimera. Liam’s mouth falls open ready to growl out a plethora of cutting insults, but he pauses, nose wrinkling at the scent that floats on the air around them. It’s that same smell, the one that’s been haunting Liam for a few days now.

“Do you smell that,” He asks, cutting of Theo’s laughter.

Theo looks suspicious like he thinks Liam might be trying to lull him into a false sense of security just to enact revenge. “Do I smell what?”

“It’s hard to explain,” Liam says honestly as he pushes himself into an upright position. “It smells familiar, but I can’t place it.”

 _It smells dangerous_ , is what Liam wants to say, but there’s no need for unnecessary worry. The smell could literally be anything.

Theo sits up, his eyes fall closed as he tilts his head back to scent at the air. “I don’t smell anything,” Theo tells him, but there’s a concerned look in his eyes when he turns back to Liam. “You have a better sense of smell than I do, though.”

Liam peers at the surrounding woods, they’re starting to darken with shadows as the sun slips further West. He pulls his bottom lips between his teeth anxiously, breathes out heavily through his nose, in and out and then in again before releasing his lip and saying: “Don’t worry, it’s probably nothing.”

Theo doesn’t look entirely convinced, but he also doesn’t look like he’s going to fight Liam on this. Liam pulls himself together and stands up gingerly, clothes sticking uncomfortably to his body.

“What are you doing now?”

Liam glances down at himself, there’s a patchwork of damp spots littering his jeans from melted snow. He lifts his gaze to Theo, expression sullen and voice petulant. “Now, I’m complaining about wet clothes.”

\---

“Liam, if you don’t stop whining I’m going to tie you to a tree a leave you for the O’s to find,” Theo says voice surly.

“I’m cold,” Liam repeats for the twelfth time.

“And I have no sympathy,” Theo says. “I told you, you would get all wet and then you would complain.”

“No one likes a bragger, Theo,” Liam tells him.

“No one likes a whiny little shit either, Liam.”

“You like me,” Liam huffs out stomping after Theo, stepping in each of Theo’s footprints so that he doesn’t have to forge his own. Theo doesn’t respond other than a soft mutter too quiet for even Liam to pick up on, but Liam is pretty sure it wasn’t anything flattering. “What was that?”

“None of your damn business,” Theo bites out and walks faster.

Liam makes a face at his back and hobbles after him.

\---

Liam’s still damp, cold, and supremely unhappy about being outside, but he’s shivering far too much to complain. Just the thought of speaking words out loud makes him feel like he’s losing body heat. He’s focusing all of his attention on two things to keep his mind off of his freezing toes and cheeks.

First, is the strong outline of Theo’s back. Liam keeps his eyes trained on it as they walk. It’s like a beacon for Liam in these quiet woods, the sound of Theo’s heartbeat thudding within it like a gentle guiding force. It’s helping Liam stay calm because the second thing Liam is focused on is the sharp scent of the woods. That strange smell is a regular patron now, consistently taunting Liam, tugging at the strings of his mind as he tries to wrack his brain for the answer to what it is.

“Come on, Littlewolf, you’re falling behind,” Theo calls out, pausing just ahead so that Liam can catch up to him.

Liam picks up his pace, the skin on his legs feels like he’s being pricked by thousands of needles as he hurries to fall into line beside Theo. A strong gust of wind billows past them. They both have to clutch at their hoods to keep them atop their heads. Liam shudders as it travels along his unprotected skin and slinks down his hoodie, it’s heavy with danger. Liam wants to step closer to Theo; wants to breathe in the safe scent of earth and everything that comprises Theo.

“You’re being oddly quiet,” Theo murmurs observantly side eyeing Liam.

The worry is growing in the pit of his stomach, he glances over at Theo from the corner of his eye and bites down on the inside of his cheek. He wants to share his anxiety, but he doesn’t want to tarnish this easy atmosphere. They’ve already been through so much and fought so hard for this light ambiance. Liam is terrified that if he breaks it now they might never get it back. So, he curls his hands into fists, crosses his arms tighter over his chest, and tamps down on the rising panic.

He hums noncommittedly. “I’m cold,” He tells Theo and his heart doesn’t give anything away because it’s not a lie, it’s just not the whole truth.

Theo nods his head slowly and glances around through the trees. “We should stop here for the night and set up camp before it gets too dark.”

Liam follows Theo’s gaze towards the setting sun, it’s dipping behind the towering trees casting long shadows and taking the warmth of its rays with it. Liam doesn’t want to stop here, he wants to keep moving farther away from what ever is giving off that faint familiar scent, but he does want to stop to warm his frozen bones.

“Yeah,” Liam agrees reluctantly as he gnaws on his bottom lip, the sting of his teeth against raw skin grounding him. “okay.”

\---

The fire is just starting to grow, twigs spreading the flames to the larger sticks when Theo trots back into the camp, his paws silent against the snow-dusted ground. There’s a rabbit dangling from his mouth, his snout coated with a light layer of snow and dirt. Theo had most likely had to dig the rabbit out of its burrow to get it since everything has gone into hibernation mode by now. The large black wolf practically preens beneath Liam’s gaze as he comes to drop the rabbit at Liam’s feet, knocking into Liam’s shoulder with his head. Liam doesn't bother trying to hide the fond smile that pulls at his lips as he plucks the rabbit up from the ground between his thumb and forefinger.

"Hmm." He peers at it thoughtfully, it's a rather large rabbit and will feed the pair of them nicely. “Good job."

Theo snorts, hot breath ghosting over Liam’s face. Liam rolls his eyes at the smug wolf in front of him. “No one likely a cocky chimera, Theo.” 

Theo bumps him again with his large head in response and nips at his shoulder gently with his teeth, fangs grazing across the fabric of Liam's hoodie before stepping back. 

Liam sucks his bottom lip into his mouth and runs his tongue across it. The skin is dry and cracked, and it burns when Liam touches it with his tongue. He releases it with a loud exhale, the air cooling the saliva instantly. Liam lets his claws push forward, their sharp tips digging into the dead rabbit.

“I’ll skin it,” He tells Theo as the wolf makes its way over to their bags where Theo’s clothes are draped across them to keep them dry from the snow.

There’s the familiar sound of bones breaking and reforming to Liam’s left, then a sharp gasp of breath when Theo’s bare skin is met with the frigid winter air.

"Are you sure you want to skin it," Theo asks.

Liam shakes his head, not looking at the other boy. "No, but I'll do it anyway."

"If you say so," Theo hums. There's a beat of silence between them as Theo quickly slips back into his clothes and then the chimera is talking again. "You know,” he drawls. “You look like a miserable little rat."

Theo sounds like he's trying to refrain from laughing. Liam scoffs, but he can’t argue against the statement because he _feels_ like a miserable little rat. He’s cold, sore from being consistently cold, and annoyingly damp. The fire doesn’t seem to be helping at all no matter how close he burrows to it without actually sitting in the flames.

“We should have stayed at the cabin,” Liam sulks as he remembers the softness of the bed and the warmth of Theo’s skin pressed against his. It’s something he shouldn’t be thinking about, but it keeps slipping to the forefront of his mind at the oddest of times.

Theo drops down on the other side of the campfire and pokes at it with a stick. A curl of embers whisper through the air before turning to ash and fluttering to the ground like dirty snowflakes. Theo rolls his eyes at Liam, the hazel color reflecting the light and shimmering like warm honey. “All you do is complain.”

“F—Fuck you,” Liam’s teeth chatter, body shivering with each gentle caress of the wind through the tree.

Theo lets out a sigh as he tosses the stick into the fire and stands up. Liam watches him with a suspicious gaze as the chimera rounds the fire and drops down beside him, their shoulders brushing. Liam stares at the side of Theo’s face with curious eyes for several long seconds, warmth seeping into the spot of his shoulder where Theo brushes against him.  

“You plan on finishing that tonight,” Theo asks not looking at him, his fingers tapping against the tops of his thighs. Liam doesn’t know if it’s nerves or impatience, though he supposed there’s no reason for Theo to be nervous.

Liam drops his eyes to the rabbit in his hands, there’s blood smeared across his fingers as he digs his claws into the dark brown fur.

Theo tilts his head towards Liam to stare at him, expression expectant. “Well, Littlewolf?”

“Where do I cut it again,” Liam asks, eyes meeting Theo’s.

“Here,” Theo points along the legs of the rabbit. “Make a clean slice and the skin will peel right off.”

Liam wrinkles his nose as he slides his claws just beneath the feet of the rabbit where Theo’s finger had traced. He hooks his nails into the skin and tugs on it. The skin gives way and peels down to the head with ease.

“Now the fun part,” Theo murmurs dryly and Liam makes a face down at his hands because gutting a tiny animal is in no way fun. Liam stares down at the bare rabbit for a long moment, contemplating about how to do this without making himself want to throw up.

“Do you want me to do it?” Theo asks quietly hand already reaching towards the rabbit.

Liam shakes his head, “No, no, I need to do this, I can’t always rely on you.”

“Alright,” Theo nods understandingly, dropping his hand back down to his leg. He bumps their shoulders together encouragingly. “Alright.”

Liam sucks in a deep, steadying breath and sets to work. It’s disgusting, but he literally sticks his hand through the head of O’s all day long so it’s not all that bad by comparison. If anything it’s much easier and less guilt-inducing.

He lets his mind wander as he works; lets it drift around to his friends and home. His claws snag on a rib and rip cleanly through the side of the rabbit. The sharp points catch into the flesh of his palm and cut him surprisingly deep. Liam hisses in pain, the rabbit sliding through his fingers as he jerks. Theo just barely manages to catch their dinner before it lands in the dirt.

“Shit, be careful,” Theo hisses, juggling the rabbit in his hands and reaching for a long stick to impale it on, but Liam isn’t listening. Liam is staring at the blood welling in the palm of his hand, the scent of blood drifting up into the air and mingling with the scent that’s haunted Liam for days now. Suddenly, Liam remembers.

“What’s wrong,” Theo asks noticing his sudden stillness, eyes darting over at him as he lays the piked rabbit over the open flames. “The cut can’t be that bad.”

“The smell I told you about, i remember what it is now,” Liam breathes out, eyes wide and fear settling in his stomach. Images of being hunted and shot and terrified to sleep flicker through his mind like a horror reel. He swallows past the sour taste rising in the back of his mouth and turns to Theo. “Monroe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Confession: The cabin scene is literally the whole reason this fic even exists. I wanted Thiam to share a bed, in a cabin in winter, but then I was like: "You know what would be even better? Zombies." So... Yeah... 
> 
> Also, I thought the boys deserved a nice little break... try not to think about what happened the last time I gave them a nice break...


	10. What's in a name?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING:  
> Violence  
> and a Masturbation scene

_“Monroe.”_

“Monroe,” Theo repeats. “Like, the crazy hunter with a grudge, Monroe?”

Liam nods, he doesn’t feel like he can say anything else. His heart is pounding too fast.

“Fuck,” Theo whispers head jerking around towards the trees like he thinks an army is going to tumble out from behind them at any second and gun them down.

“What direction is the scent coming from,” Theo asks turning back towards him, his nostrils flaring, trying to catch the smell himself.

“That way,” Liam says pointing towards the path they had come from. “It’s always behind us.”

Liam swallows thickly as he peers into the yawning abyss between the trees. “Do you think she’s tracking us?”

“I don’t know,” Theo says and stands up, he grabs Liam by the arm and drags him up to his feet. “And I really don’t want to find out, come on, let’s go.”

Theo kicks dirt into the fire until it dims down and eventually dies out, plunging them in darkness. The smell of charred wood and burning fur the only indicator that a fire had been burning at all.

“We're leaving,” Liam asks staring at the dead fire and the half-cooked rabbit. “Right now? It’s the middle of the night.”

“Yes, and you’re a werewolf, Liam,” Theo says snatching their backpacks up from the ground and turning back to Liam. His eyes glimmer in the night like sunrise, fear, and anger coming from him in waves thick enough to drown Liam. “You can see in the dark, remember?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Liam tells him. “I mean she’s probably set up a camp for the night, we can stay here until morning and then leave at first light.”

“Do you really want to take that chance,” Theo inquires, hand holding out Liam’s backpack like he already knows Liam’s answer.

Liam’s freezing, damp, and he’s both tired and hungry, but Theo is right, they should go now. Liam and Theo have both long since learned that it’s better to play it safe now than be sorry later. Or, in this case, dead later.

“No,” Liam shakes his head, his hand reaching out and closing around the strap of his bag. “No, you’re right.”

He slips his arms through the bag and glances back at where the scent is coming from, he nods at Theo, his own eyes flaring to life to chase away the surrounding darkness. “Let’s go.”

* * *

 

The sun is just rising, light spilling across the earth as the sky overhead slowly brightens from the dark tones of the night to the pale purples and blues of morning. It would be a pretty start to the day, had they woken up to it.  _And,_  were there  _not_  a large ominous cloud metaphorically hanging over their heads; a dark reminder of what’s coming for them. Liam misses the easy atmosphere that had been between them just hours before now. He wants to be back in the cabin in bed, hidden beneath the blankets and sharing warmth with Theo. He wants to be laying in the snow, breathless and smiling from a snowball fight. He does _not_  want to be tiredly stumbling through the woods after Theo in silence with fear eating away at his heart and worry plaguing his mind about being hunted. 

* * *

 

It’s been two days of non-stop walking. They’re both exhausted and snappish, the tense atmosphere has them at each other’s throats; fangs bared and eyes glowing dangerously. Liam is hungry and tired and half-frozen. Irritation thrums beneath his skin like poison. The urge to maim something becomes harder and harder to push away and he knows that Theo feels the same way he does. He can see it in the tense set of the chimera’s shoulder, the terse way he gives directions. If they don’t get some sleep soon they’re going to end up covered in bruises and each other’s blood, and fighting is the last thing that they need right now.

* * *

 

The sun’s setting on the third day and they’re running on three hours of sleep between them. The temperatures steadily dropping as the warm rays of light slip behind the trees. It’s doing little to improve Liam’s already foul mood. Theo is stomping through the snow ahead of him, feet heavily falling against the ground and the sound of it is driving Liam insane. Each step Theo takes makes Liam want to either claw his own ears off or murder Theo. Rationally, he knows that both ideas are horrible, but the colder he gets and the louder Theo walks, the more appealing murder looks to him.

He growls loudly and comes to an abrupt halt when Theo smacks down on a stick hidden beneath the snow and it cracks like an avalanche, the sound irritating Liam’s sensitive ears. “Why are you walking so fucking loudly?”

Theo doesn’t stop walking, and that just works to grate further on Liam’s touchy nerves. Theo glances over his shoulder like Liam is hardly worth his time, the chimera’s eyes are practically slits. “What?”

“You. Are. Loud.” Liam grits out through his clenched teeth, he can feel his fangs beginning to poke through. “You walk like you’re part elephant instead of part wolf.”

That makes Theo stop walking, his back still to Liam as he speaks.  “I am  _not_ part elephant.” He says and Liam can’t see his face, but he can see Theo’s claws from where the chimera’s hands are dangling at his sides.

 “Then stop walking like one,” Liam growls out, he knows this is dangerous territory, they’re both already so close to snapping, but he can’t stop himself. “You are driving me fucking crazy! You sound like a heard of buffalo!”

“Like you can talk about someone else being loud,” Theo snaps whirling around to finally face Liam, his nose in wrinkled up in a snarl.

“What’s that supposed to me,” Liam asks dangerously.

“ _It means,_  that you breathe too heavily,” Theo snarls, his hands curling into fists. “You act like you’re running a marathon! You’re a werewolf you should not be breathing this heavily!”

Liam does not breathe heavily, he breathes just the right amount. Theo can go fuck himself with his elephant-fucking-feet. “Well, excuse me for trying to live,” He shoots back sourly.

“ _Oh,”_  Theo says loudly, his brows raising mockingly. “ _Is that what you call it?_  It sounds more like a drowning O.”

“Fuck you, Raeken,” Liam says angrily, mind blanking on anything else to say.

“Good, come back, Dunbar,” Theo rolls his eyes and turns forward again.

Liam can hear him grumbling under his breath, but he can’t make out any definite words. Liam grits his teeth and tries to hold back, but he can’t. “If you have something to say, then say it to my face you jackass!”

“I already did,” Theo shoots back without looking at him. His voice tight and angry as he continues to stomp forward.

Liam shrugs off his backpack and throws it at the back of Theo’s head. He watches it sail through the air towards Theo with a sense of satisfaction that grows when it hits the chimera with a resounding thud and drops to the ground. There are several long seconds of silence, like Theo is processing what just happened and then Liam hears it: growling, low and angry and full of painful intentions. Liam licks his lips nervously as he realizes what he’s just done. He’s never been one to think things through before doing them.

“What the fuck, Dunbar,” Theo snarls twisting around and leveling him with a withering stare.

Liam crosses his arms over his chest and resolves to hold his ground. “You deserved that, and you know it.”

Both of Theo’s brows raise high on his forehead, there’s a sneer marring the corner of his mouth. “Oh, yeah?”

The chimera stalks towards Liam, feet smacking angrily against the snow, he steps on that same stick and it cracks again, making Liam’s eye twitch in irritation. “You know what you deserve, Liam?”

Liam doesn’t have times for a witty response before Theo punches him in the face and sends him falling back onto his ass in the muddy snow. He clutches at his face, warm blood seeping through his fingers as pain rockets through his nose. A loud rumbling growl vibrates through his chest, his nails scrape across his skin as his wolf pushes hungrily to the surface. He launches himself at Theo’s middle, his arms ensnaring Theo’s waist as he tackles the chimera roughly to the ground.

Theo grunts in pain, the air knocking from his lungs in a loud whoosh. Theo punches at Liam, claws catching at Liam’s shoulders and tearing through his shirt. It’s childish to fight when there are so many things trying to kill them out here, but its easy and mindless, and blessedly familiar in a way that they both need.

There’s a sharp hiss of pain from his own mouth when Theo’s sharp claws catch him in the ribs, tearing through his sweater and skin like butter. The chimera wraps a leg around Liam’s waist and rocks up pushing all of his weight against Liam and rolling them over. Liam seethes at the change in power and snarls. Theo growls back, dodging Liam’s futile swipes at his face as they continue to beat at each other.

Theo’s weight is settled across his stomach, warm and heavy as he pins Liam to the ground. Theo’s hands wrap around his wrists, gripping them tightly and dragging them above Liam’s head so that Liam can’t claw at him. The chimera’s face is caught between anger and exhilaration, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarling smile, cheeks dusted pink and eyes glittering in the low light. Liam forgets to fight back, his mouth parting in surprise, he likes this too much. He leans forward in a blind panic and brutally smashes his forehead into Theo’s face.

“Fuck,” Theo curses, his hands slipping from Liam's wrists as he falls backward onto the ground. “Fucking, Dunbar, stop breaking my nose, damn it!”

Blood dribbles down his chin, fat droplets rolling from his skin, staining the gray of his hoodie. The scent of fresh blood is going to draw O’s to them, but Liam doesn’t care right now. He lifts his hand up and flips Theo off as he staggers up to his feet. He doesn’t make it far thanks to Theo delivering a quick, strong kick to the side of his knee, sending him crashing back into the snow face first, a loud crack ringing out from his leg.

“Shit,” He curses in pain, fingers digging into the snow. “That hurt you prick!”

“Good, it was supposed to, you little shit. You broke my nose twice,” Theo says, his voice muffled by his hands as he resets his nose, so it’ll heal right. “Can we be done now?”

Liam wants to say no, but he’s honestly too exhausted to put up much more of a fight.

“Yeah, well, you ripped my shirt,” He pants into the ground, snow and dirt rising up to choke him.

“Does that make us even?”

Liam lets out a low groan as he rolls onto his back, everything in him protesting at the movement.

“Maybe,” He coughs and his lungs ache, his mouth tastes coppery like blood. Every bone in his body hurts as they shift back into their proper places.

Despite the heaviness of the pain, Liam feels lighter. The weight of the last few weeks lifting away from him as he blinks up at the rolling grey of the clouds. Beside him, Theo laughs, and the carefree sound catches Liam off guard. It’s been a long time since he’s heard Theo laugh like that. He turns his head with difficulty to face Theo. The chimera looks as terrible as Liam feels; his clothes stained with dirt and blood, hair mussed and littered with tiny blades of grass and leaves, his skin bruised and covered in lacerations, but there’s a quirk to Theo’s lips that brings one to Liam’s own mouth.

Liam tilts his head back, eyes fixing on the sky and clouds once more. They roll by overhead, bulbous and threatening. He’s always wanted the classic white Christmas morning, but he could really do without another blizzard or snow ever again. His childhood dreams can fuck off, he just wants to be warm. A nice sunny Christmas sounds amazing now.

“Guess we won’t make it back home in time for Christmas, huh,” Liam murmurs mostly to himself.

“You’re really hung up about missing Christmas in Beacon hills, aren’t you,” Theo says from his left. “What are you, part elf?”

There’s a thoughtful hum followed by a derisive snort of laughter. “Actually, that would explain the height.”

“Shut up,” Liam grumbles and wishes he could reach out and hit Theo without it causing himself pain. “I’m not short, damn you and I’m not part—fucking—elf those don’t even exist.”

“Then what’s with the Christmas obsession?”

Liam tries to shrug, but his bones won’t allow it. He grunts as a sharp sting wracks though his body in protest of any movement.

“Not Christmas really,” He says grimacing as he shifts his body on the ground, trying to find a comfortable position where he can breathe properly. “But, Christmas Eve, yeah.”

There’s a small questioning noise from Theo. “Why Christmas Eve?”

Liam’s quiet, his eyes falling shut as he gathers his thoughts, memories flickering through his head of home and family.

“It’s…It’s kind of a family tradition,” Liam says slowly. He ignores the sting in his mouth when the skin pulls taunt on his cuts as he speaks.

“Any particular reason,” Theo asks, sounding genuinely interested in the response.

“It was my grandmother’s birthday,” Liam explains opening his eyes and staring up at the sky, a few stars peeking through the clouds. “Before she died everyone in the family would meet at her house at noon on Christmas Eve for dinner and presents. She loved cooking large meals and feeding everyone. It made her happy.”

He smiles fondly at the memory, the warmth of his grandmother’s house and the savory scents of her food, the tinkling sound of her laughter. His eyes feel warm.

“We would all exchange presents after dinner and then we’d split into teams and play games,” He continues scrubbing at his face with a dirty hand before any tears can fall down his cheeks. “After she died we still did that to remember her. We meet up every Christmas Eve to eat and open gifts to honor her…”

Liam clears his throat, it feels oddly thick. He exhales loudly and turns to look at Theo again. “What about you?”

Theo turns his head towards him, his brows furrowing in confusion. “What about me,” He asks warily.

“Did you and your family have any traditions for Christmas when you were little?”

Theo doesn’t answer right away, a distant look clouding his green eyes as though he’s trapped in some memory. Liam wonders what he’s seeing, wishes he could ask, but knows Theo would never honestly answer. After what feels like forever Theo shakes his head his eyes rapidly blinking. Liam watches the bob of his throat as he swallows thickly and turns his gaze back to the rolling clouds overhead. “No.”

“No,” Liam whispers. “Nothing at all?”

“My parents… weren’t really big on holidays,” Theo tells him haltingly.

“What about you, then,” Liam inquires softly. “Do you like to do anything for Christmas?”

“I like to ignore it,” Theo says, lips twitching at the corners.

Liam rolls his eyes, “ _Of course.”_

Theo snorts out a quiet laugh and shrugs. “I just never saw the point in it. It’s just a commercialized holiday, like valentine’s day or Halloween. You buy presents for people who pretend to like them even though they actually hate them, and you have to make nice with people you hardly know. It just seems like a lot of unnecessary torture to me.”

“ _Unnecessary torture,”_  Liam laughs and bites back a wince when it makes his lungs ache. “Remind me to drag you to all of my future family functions as my plus one after all this.”

“Right,” Theo says wryly. “I’ll be sure to send you a memo.”

“Good,” Liam says.

Theo's voice is hesitant when he speaks again. “Won't your family think it’s weird for you to bring me to all of your gatherings.”

“Gathering,” Liam repeats. “You make my family sound like a cult.”

Theo tilts his head to the side to look at him a single brow raised inquiringly. 

“They might,” Liam says honestly. “Assuming I have any family left after this, but…” -He hums in thought.

“But, what?”

“I think my mom would like you.”

Theo looks surprised. “I highly doubt Mrs. Dunbar would like me.”

“Mrs. Geyer,” Liam corrects automatically used to the confusion with their different surnames. “But she’ll have you call her Jenna, and I think she would like you as long as you never call her ma’am, she hates that. Says it makes her feel old.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for when you drag me to all of your cult family gatherings,” Theo tells him mockingly serious.

“Good, make sure that you do. Otherwise, she might whack you,” Liam says gravely, trying not to both smile and cry at thoughts of his mother. It's been so long since he's last seen her, last heard her say his name with fondness. 

“So, she’s just as little and violent as you are, then,” Theo murmurs dragging him from his thoughts. 

Liam rolls his eyes but doesn’t disagree. His mother is a tiny human woman, but she’s a force to be reckoned with. He stares at Theo silently from the corner of his eye and smiles. He wasn’t lying, he really does think his mom would like Theo.

“You ready to go yet,” Theo asks making no move to stand up. He looks perfectly content with laying bruised and bloody in the snow. 

“Not yet,” Liam shakes his head, he’s not ready to destroy this easy moment between them just yet. “I think my leg is still broken  _thanks to someone_.”

Theo turns his head and grins with unabashed satisfaction. “You deserved that, and you know it.”

* * *

 

The parking lot of the shopping center is full of abandoned cars, snow piled high atop the glimmering metal. It almost feels like before the outbreak; the sun paints the lot with a soft light making the morning seem sleepy and ethereal. Liam almost expects to see customers and employees milling about, buying eggs for breakfast, nodding at one another tiredly in early morning solidarity, but there’s no one. It’s just Theo and Liam like it always is.

“Well,” Theo says tiredly. “Are you ready?”

“You’re not serious,” Liam’s voice is loud, the sound of it carrying across the lot. “We can’t go in there, it’s fucking huge.”

Theo glances at him, a put-upon sigh slipping from his mouth as they stand shoulder to shoulder staring at the supercenter. “Of course, I’m serious, Liam. We are completely out of supplies and it’s hard to find animals in the snow like this.”

“So?”

“So, dumbass, we need real coats and food or we’re going to either freeze to death or starve before making it home,” Theo tells him. “So, unless, making it home is no longer on your to-do list then we’re going inside.”

Liam turns his head away. He knows Theo is right, he usually is, but Liam is terrified of what they might find inside. He’s terrified of what could go wrong because with their luck something is bound to take a turn for the worst soon.

“There’s a lot of cars here,” He says quietly, eyes on the glass doors, searching for any type of movement in the dark recesses of the building before them.

“I know.”

“That means there could be a lot of O’s inside that building…” Liam trails off, thoughts running rampant as images flicker through his brain of the last time they had been cornered by a herd of O’s. He’d almost lost Theo and himself.

Theo bumps him gently with his shoulder making Liam turn back towards him. Theo’s eyes catch his, he doesn’t look worried or scared, he looks tired and resigned to do something he doesn't want to do. 

“I know, Liam,” Theo says, his voice just as quiet. “But, it’s our only choice.”

Liam thinks about home and the people he can’t wait to see, clenches his jaw and forces himself to nod. “Okay… Okay, let’s go.”

The hinges creak from disuse when they pull open the doors. The inside of the store is pitch black, it makes Liam think of nightmares and he can’t stop himself from looking down at his claws to count ten just to make sure that it’s not one. Theo gives him a curious look from the corner of his eyes but says nothing when Liam shakes his head. The store smells like dust and rot, and Liam is slowly getting very accustomed to it. It no longer tickles his nose or makes him gag, it’s just something that’s always there. He doesn’t see or hear any O’s, but the store is fairly large.

“We should split up to gather supplies,” Theo says after several minutes of sneaking through the store. He grabs a tipped over shopping cart and rightens it. “This is taking too long, and we need to hurry.”

“What—No,” Liam shakes his head adamantly as Theo pushes the cart back and forth to check the wheels for any squeaking noises. “Splitting up is a  _terrible idea._  Have you never seen a horror movie, Theo?  _That’s how people die!”_

“I’ve seen lots of horror movies, Liam,” Theo says reaching out to grab his hand. He tugs Liam towards the shopping cart and places his hands on the handlebar.

“Go that way and find whatever warm clothing you can,” Theo tells him, pointing to the left. “I’ll go this way and look for food.”

“Theo—”

Theo cuts him off. “We’ll meet back here in about forty minutes, okay?”

Liam bites nervously at his bottom lip, he doesn’t want to let Theo out of his sight, but he nods anyway. “Fine.”

“Good,” Theo nods back at him and turns to walk away. He pauses before he gets too far, turns around, and walks backward as he speaks.

“ _Don’t worry_ , if we’re going by horror movie rules then I can’t die,” He winks at Liam before turning back around and continuing on his way. “You be careful though, Blondie.”

Liam rubs a hand through his hair and frowns at Theo’s back.  _What is that supposed to mean?_

“I’m not dying first, you asshole,” Liam grumbles, turning back to the shopping cart.

He shoves the cart down the dark aisles of the store, squinting at the signs above them as he looks for the winter wear department. He’s never been in a store this large before, they don’t have any like it in Beacon Hills. He’s a little frustrated, and a lot curious, about how people find anything in a place of this size because the signs are not helpful at all. He feels like he needs a map or a GPS.

“Come on, you can navigate yourself through a store alone,” He grumbles at himself as he peers up at the dusty signs hanging over the mouth of each aisle. “If you get lost in here like a child Theo will never let you live it down.”

He picks u speed as his frustration grows and time ticks by. He’s somehow ended up in the bathroom décor area instead of the winter gear department. He huffs out a breath of annoyance, he’s supposed to meet Theo in less than forty minutes now and he has zero idea where he is. He steps up onto the little metal railing at the bottom of the shopping cart and kicks off from the ground sending the cart and himself sailing down the aisle, passing rows and rows of shower curtains and bathmats. He hops off and skids to a halt when he reaches the end and turns the corner towards where he hopes the winter department will be.

“Oh,” He startles coming to an instant halt at the mouth of the next aisle. He backs away slowly, eyes wide. “Wrong aisle.”

There’s a hoard of O’s at the end of the lane, all of the hunched over as the tear into something, or someone, with relish. Blood spills across the white tiles like an ocean of red. Liam wrinkles his nose in disgust at the sight. He tries not to think about what the O’s are eating as he twists around, pushing his shopping cart in the other direction.

“Clean up, aisle 12,” Liam murmurs to himself as he hurries away from bloodbath and beyond. He’s careful to be quiet and quick, his eyes darting back and forth as he peers into the shadows. He doesn’t feel like being dinner today.

* * *

 

It’s been longer than forty minutes when Liam arrives back at the rendezvous point with his cart laden with clothing. The area is dark and silent and lacking in obnoxious chimeras’. It makes Liam antsy, a thousand scenarios running through his head at once.

_Maybe he had a run in with O’s…_

_Maybe Monroe was closer than they thought._

_Maybe she got Theo and is torturing him to death while Liam just stands here doing nothing like an idiot._

_Maybe…Maybe Liam worries too much._

He huffs in irritation as Theo comes into view with his own cart. It’s empty save for a few cans, some of which are dented, and they probably shouldn’t eat from them since botulism is a thing. Liam wonders if werewolves can even get botulism.

“You’re late,” Liam points out, his voice thankfully sounding more irritated than relieved.

“I was busy,” Theo says with a shrug. The motion draws Liam’s attention to the blood coating the left sleeve of Theo’s hoodie and he’s moving forward, hand reaching for Theo before he can stop himself.

“You’re not bitten right,” He asks narrowing his eyes at the chimera even though his voice is tinged with worry. “Because I will kill you, Theo if you try to hide something like that from me again.”

Theo jerks his arm back and rolls his eyes as he pushes up his sleeve to show Liam the smooth expanse of his arm. “Calm down, I’m not bitten, you tiny grouch.”

“I’m not a grouch,” Liam says absently, his eyes tracing the unblemished skin in front of him. He reaches out and drags his fingers from the crook of Theo’s elbow to his hand. He wraps his fingers around Theo’s wrist and squeezes, feeling the pulse beneath Theo’s skin. It’s faster than it should be, but it’s there and that’s all that matter to Liam.

 “See,” Theo says quietly, Liam can feel his eyes on his face. “I’m fine, Liam.”

Yeah,” Liam exhales, relief seeping into his veins like a calming balm.

“Can I have my arm back now?”

“Liam blinks up at him and then back down to where his fingers are still firmly wrapped around Theo’s wrist. He jerks his hand away, apologies falling from his lips. “Sorry.”

He clears his throat awkwardly and takes two steps back when he realizes how close he’s standing to Theo. He bumps into his shopping cart and apologies again. Theo’s giving him a strange look, his gold eyes alight with amusement and something like fondness.

“Um,” Liam says feeling oddly nervous beneath Theo’s gaze. “What did you find?”

“Not much, but’s it’s better than nothing,” Theo reaches into his cart and holds up two cans, one of them is bright yellow and clearly says peaches across the front of it, the other one is a can of pork and beans. “Hope you like peaches and pork because that all they had left. ”

He tilts his chin down at Liam’s cart. “Looks like you got a lot.”

“Yeah.”  Liam nods. “Most of the winter gear was untouched still.”

“The outbreak started in summer so there wasn’t much need for any of it then,” Theo says logically. “And now whoever is left is probably too scared to set foot in such a large place.”

“You would be a little scared to come in here too if you weren’t like immune to the zombie bite or something,” Liam points out.

Theo rolls his eyes as he plucks up the cans and starts stuffing them into Liam’s backpack. “I don’t think it’s actually immunity,” Theo says, head tilting to the side and his eyebrows furrowing in thought. “More like it healed but took its sweet time doing it.”

Liam nods slowly as he thinks about the black sludge Theo had kept puking up and wonders if that was Theo’s body trying to dispel the toxins inside it.

“Do you think I would heal if I got bitten?” He muses out loud, it’s a thought that’s crossed his mind a few times before.

The chimera shrugs as he zips up the bag and hands it over to Liam. “Probably. You might even heal faster, but…”

“But?”

“I’d rather you not test out the theory,” Theo says tugging his soiled hoodie over his head and dropping it to the ground. He digs one of the many coats out of Liam’s shopping cart and holds it up to himself. He shakes his head and picks up a different one.

“Yeah,” Liam says dryly as he thinks about how much pain Theo had to endure. “I’ll try not to.”

“Good,” Theo says softly.

Liam’s heart trips over itself at the soft tone and the look Theo gives him. Theo licks his lips and turns away, shrugging on his new coat as he speaks again. “I don’t want to hear you whining for hours about how you think you’re dying. You’re annoying enough as it is.”

“Fuck you,” Liam huffs staring at his back, he’s glad Theo’s not looking at him. He doesn’t want the chimera to see his stupid smile.  

* * *

 

His legs ache from consistently brisk pace they’ve been going at for the last few hours and his stomach keeps growling with hunger, a constant reminder that its empty. Liam wants to drop down in the snow and nap for several years, but even he knows that’s a bad idea.

“You’re being unnaturally quiet,” Theo comments from behind him. “What’s going on in that weird little head of yours, Dunbar?”

“Nothing,” Liam huffs out walking a little faster.

Theo scoffs in disbelief. “Wanna try again?”

“No.”

They continue walking in silence for several long minutes before Liam finally cracks.

“It’s just,” He makes a noise of frustration, arms waving through the air like it explains what he’s feeling. It doesn’t, but he still thinks it helps.

“It’s just what?” Theo prompts curiously.

“The universe sucks,” Liam mumbles.

There’s a pause in footsteps behind him followed by the sound of Theo’s quiet laughter.

“I mean, really, are O’s not enough,” Liam rants. “Are literal fucking zombies not enough to deal with? Now we have to deal with Monroe again too? What is this?”

He kicks angrily at a pinecone and watches as it sails through the air, snow dust spilling from its coniferous form as it goes.

“Did I wrong someone in a past life?” He continues grumpily. “Has some alternate version of me just royally fucked up and now I have to pay for it?”

Theo hums in amusement from behind him and starts walking again. “You probably had an illicit affair with a man…” He trails off like he’s thinking, Liam glances back at him and sees Theo nodding. “All while being in a very loving relationship with a woman.”

That sounds nothing like me,” Liam grumbles at him.

“Because of the man sex?”

“No,” Liam shakes his head, he has no problem with being with men. “Because of the cheating, I would never do that.”

“Even good Littlewolf’s can be corrupted by devils Liam,” Theo tells him, his voice is mockingly sage.

Liam snorts. “Thank you, Obi-Wan.”

“Who,” Theo asks sounding genuinely confused.

Liam pauses and turns around, eyes wide as he stares at Theo. “You don’t know who Obi-Wan Kenobi is?”

When Theo shakes his head no, Liam lets out an incredulous laugh. “Dude, you were childhood friends with Stiles! How have you never seen Star Wars.”

Theo shrugs. “Just never got around to it.”

“Never got around to it,” Liam repeats to himself in surprise.

Stiles had made the entire pack watch it together before he left for the FBI program again after the war.  _A pack bonding exercise,_  Stiles had called it. Liam prefers to refer to it as the longest night of his life and is still a little miffed at the 16 hours of his life he is never going to get back.

Now, that he thinks about it though, Theo hadn’t been there that night. Liam has no idea where the chimera was, Theo had just up and disappeared after the pack had run Monroe from town. He knows for a fact that Scott had invited Theo to that pack night because Liam has a distinct memory of Stiles and Malia both complaining about it, but Theo had never shown up and no one had said anything about him.

“We’ll stop here for an hour so rest,” Theo says interrupting his thoughts.

“What,” Liam says blinking in surprise as Theo stops walking and stretches his arms high above his head, his coat riding up to reveal a strip of tan skin just above the waistband of his jeans.

“I said we’re stopping here for an hour,” Theo nods at a small patch of earth peeking through the snow near a tree trunk. “So, rest up, Dunbar, we won’t be taking another break for a while.”

“You need rest too,” Liam tells him with a frown as he shrugs off his backpack and drops it in the snow near the tree.

 “I’m fine,” Theo tells him as he looks around the area, eyes squinting through the trees. Liam wants to roll his eyes because Monroe doesn’t smell close to them at all anymore.

Theo—”

“I can’t risk us both falling asleep, not with Monroe on our trail,” Theo interjects with a shake of his head. “It’s too dangerous.”

“But—"

“We don’t know how many people she has with her,” Theo cuts him off again.

Liam has to bite back an irritated growl at the interruption.

“We can’t afford to be caught off guard,” Theo says wisely. “It’s just the two of us out here Liam, we can’t fight her if she has an army.”

“Why not,” Liam asks petulantly. “We did fine on our own before.”

Theo sighs and runs a hand through his hair, the strands tangle together making him look even more exhausted than before. “We weren’t up against every soldier on her side though, we were only up against one battalion, Liam. We have to play it safe and smart out here, we can’t just refuse to run away and leap headfirst into danger.”

“I know that, okay, but... but that doesn’t change the fact that you need to rest too, Theo. You can’t keep pushing yourself this way,” Liam insists. “Neither of us can, it’s not healthy.”

“I’ll rest when we’re far enough away that you can’t smell her anymore,” Theo says, and it sounds like the end of an argument.

“Fine,” Liam says at once crossing his arms over his chest like an angry child. “I can’t smell her anymore.”

“I can hear the lie in your heart Liam,” Theo murmurs. “Sit down and rest, I’m not going to indulge your whining after this.”

Liam rolls his eyes. Huffing in irritation he falls to the ground next to the tree and leans back against the bark.

“At least sit-down, just looking at you is exhausting me,” Liam says imploringly as he pats the dry space of ground next to him.

Theo looks like he wants to put up a fight, he also looks too exhausted to continue arguing and Liam knows that he’s won this. Theo trudges towards him and drops down beside him, his arms crossing over his chest as his head leans back against the rough bark. Liam stares at him from the corner of his eye, worry eating away at his insides. Theo’s skin is ashen with exhaustion, worry lines crease his forehead and bruises mar the skin beneath his eyes. Liam knows he probably doesn’t look much better, but he can’t see himself, so he doesn’t worry about that.

 “See,” Liam gives Theo a small smile. “Aren’t breaks nice?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Theo mumbles lips twitching as he reaches for Liam’s bag and pulls out a can of peaches. “Shut up, Liam.”

Silence settles over them, light and comfortable as they sit side by side eating canned fruit. Liam stretches his legs out in front of him and groans quietly as the muscles in them burn. They would have already repaired themselves if he was getting the proper nutrition and sleep needed, but now they just ache constantly. He tilts his head back and looks up through the barren branches of the tree at the sky, it’s growing dark with storm clouds, their bulbous forms covering the sun. He blinks up at them several times, his eyes barely managing to stay open.

“Hey, Theo,” He murmurs sleepily. “Where did you go after leaving the hospital?”

“Going to need you to be more specific than that, Liam,” Theo says. “Which time? After I was born? When I broke my arm? After I had my first asthma attack?”

“You know when I'm talking about, Theo,” Liam says lazily turning to stare at the profile of Theo’s face.

He watches at Theo’s mouth forms a thin line and knows that the chimera is planning on saying something snarky, so he cuts him off before Theo gets the chance.

“Seriously, you were gone for two months,” Liam huffs. “And then you just showed up at a pack meeting with Scott one day like it was nothing. So, where did you go?”

“I went to see my parents,” Theo admits quietly turning his head in the other direction so that Liam can’t see his face at all, Liam knows he’s telling the truth though, he can hear it in the beat of the chimera’s heart.

“For two months?”

Theo’s head dips forward, hair falling over his shoulder. “It took me a while to find them.”

“Why,” Liam asks, nose wrinkling in confusion. “Were they hiding or something?”

“Yes,” Theo’s voice is hard, devoid of emotion.

 Liam’s almost scared to ask his next question, but like usual his mouth moves without waiting for his brain. “From what?”

“Me.” The way Theo says it sounds so simple like there would never be any other reason for them to hide.

Liam remembers what Scott and Stiles had told him about Theo’s parents and what Theo had done to them. He’d tortured them, physically, psychologically, he’d done a lot of horrific things to a lot of people. However, Theo isn’t that person anymore. He hasn’t been since Liam brought him back from hell. Theo isn’t a good person, not even close, but he’s not the person he used to be. He’s just Theo now, the guy who’s saved Liam’s life countless time, the one who brings Liam back from the edge when his anger gets to be too much, or when he has a panic attack. He’s the guy Liam sees every day and would honestly be lost without, physically and mentally.

Theo’s not a good person, but he’s trying and that’s what matters to Liam now.

“Why did you go see them,” Liam asks tentatively, he wants to reach out and take Theo’s hand, because he doesn't like the scent clinging to Theo's skin. It's dark, clouded with sadness and confusion, the smell of it makes Liam's stomach roll with nausea. He keeps his hands to himself though, unsure whether the would be welcomed or not. 

“Because it was something I needed to do,” Theo says flatly. “I did terrible things to them, things I needed to apologize for even if…” There’s a small growl of anger, Liam’s not sure if it’s directed at his parents or himself.

“Theo,” Liam begins but stops when he sees Theo’s shoulders hunch up defensively at the sound of his voice.

He sits back against the tree and bites down on his lip to keep himself from saying anything else. Liam has admittedly never been any good at things like this, Scott, Mason, they were pros at knowing just what to say, him though, he was shit at words. Breathing in deeply through his nose he knocks his shoulder into Theo’s gently and keeps it there, pressed tight against the chimera. Theo doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t move away either, so Liam decides to count it as a win. Theo’s shoulder is a beacon of warmth against his own.

The silence that falls over them again isn’t as light or as welcoming as before, but still, Liam refuses to break it for fear that he’ll say something wrong. He turns his eyes back up to the fading sunlight filtering through the swaying branches. He almost wishes he hadn’t said anything, to begin with, even if he is a little thankful for Theo opening up to him. Still, it would have been better for him to have not brought up something so obviously painful for Theo. He curls and uncurls his fingers, pumping warmth into them as he watches the sky for signs of rain.

* * *

 

Something, or someone, is shuffling through the snow towards them, Liam’s been listening to it draw nearer. His heart thudding quickly in his chest in a panic. The air is thick with a coming storm, but that doesn’t stop Liam from tilting his head towards the wind and closing his eyes as he tries to catch the scent of whatever is coming for them. He breathes in deeply through his nose and exhales a loud sigh of relief, his nose wrinkling at the acrid smell of death.

 It’s just an O milling about through the woods searching for its next meal and not a hunter out to kill them just because they’re werewolves. He lets out a breathy laugh, it’s weird how the thought of a zombie is more comforting than the thought of a live human being, but that’s their life now. He drops his head to peer through the line of trees, eyes peeled for the O, but he doesn’t see it.

He twists his head back to Theo, mouth opening to ask whether they should be on their way now or not, but his words die on his tongue the moment his eyes come to rest on the chimera. Theo is fast asleep beside him, his head tipped back against the trunk of the tree, his mouth slightly parted as he breathes deeply in his sleep. Surprise rockets through Liam at the sight, he had been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed Theo had fallen asleep at all. His eyes trace the worried lines of Theo’s face, his hands curl into fists on his thighs to stop himself from reaching out and trailing a finger over one of the lines like a map.

To his right, the shuffling sounds growers closer, louder. Liam purses his lips in frustration as he carefully pushes himself up to his feet and away from Theo’s warmth. A yawn works its way from his mouth as his hands raised high above his head to stretch out his sleeping limbs. He can see the O now, coming towards them through the trees, it’s slow feet kicking up snow.

Liam heads towards it as quietly as he can, his feet crunching through the snow as he moves to cut the O off and draw it back through the trees away from where Theo is peacefully asleep. The O turns and follows him drawn by his movement, it’s pale rolling eyes locking onto Liam as it staggers after him. Liam goads it farther and farther away, taking the same path it had shuffled its way from.

He scans the ground as he walks, keeping one ear on the progress of the O behind him as he looks for something to use as a pike. He spots a stick peeking through the snow just up ahead and nearly cheers, he won’t have to use his claws to kill the O. He jogs forward, jerking the stick up from the ground and bending it slightly to test its strength.  _It’ll get the job done_ , he nods to himself and twists around to face the incoming O. Leveling the stick with the O’s eye socket, he thrusts it brutally through the O’s eyeball, then flinches back in disgust when the ball gives an audible pop and dribbles down the O’s sunken face.

“Gross,” Liam grunts out releasing the stick and letting the O fall into the snow with a heavy thud.

“I hate O’s,” He mutters to himself as he heads back to Theo.

The chimera hasn’t moved at all other than his head dipping forward at an awkward and uncomfortable looking angle, soft snores dancing in the air around him. Liam rolls his eyes, but there’s a fond smile working its way onto his mouth at the sight. He shakes his head at the unaware chimera and drops back down beside him. Gently, he maneuvers Theo so that the chimera is resting comfortably against his side, his head leaning on Liam’s shoulder like a pillow.

He’ll let Theo sleep a little longer.

* * *

 

The clouds overhead look ready to open up at any second, the air around them is charged with electricity as thunder rumbles loudly in the distance. Liam eyes the sky warily as they make their way up a never-ending hill, they’re somewhere near Denver now and Liam wishes they weren’t. It’s nothing but hills, slopes, exceedingly cold weather and snow.

“It’s going to rain soon,” Liam grumbles mostly to himself because he’s already told Theo this several times and each time Theo has ignored him.

“It’s going to be cold and we’re going to get soaked and then—”

“You’re going to complain even more than you already are,” Theo mutters under his breath.

Liam narrows his eyes at the back of Theo’s head and contemplates whether he wants to hasten his pace just for the sole purpose of punching Theo in the face, or whether he wants to let the comment go unpunished. He decides to let it go, because he’s a merciful person, and not because he’s too tired to speed up.

“No,” Liam huffs a little louder than before. “We’re going to get hypothermia and then die.”

“Good,” Theo snipes just as loud. “Can’t wait, maybe then I won’t have to listen to you complain the entire way to California.”

Liam wishes there was an O nearby, so he could feed Theo to it.

* * *

 

It’s raining, just like Liam knew it would.

“This is sleet, dumbass, not rain,” Theo corrects when he hears Liam mumbling to himself.

“Oh,” Is Liam’s sarcastic retort. “My bad.”

The rain, sleet, whatever it is, hurts. It smacks relentlessly against Liam’s face like thousands of tiny, angry needles. The wind shoving him back and forth as he trudges onwards. He has to clutch at the hood on his coat just to keep it on his head.

“Sleet is so much better,” Liam growls. “Really enjoying myself here.”

A hand wraps around his wrist and yanks him to the side. “Shut up and come here.”

Theo pulls Liam along behind him, his hand holding tightly to Liam’s wrist like he’s worried he’s going to lose Liam in the storm. There’s a black jeep just ahead of them, the front smashes into a large tree to the left of the road. The windshield is severely cracked, but still intact. Liam nearly cheers when he realizes that Theo is leading him towards it with purpose.

The chimera jerks open the back door and pokes his head inside, checking it quickly for any O’s that might be lurking hungrily inside.

“Empty,” Theo says before climbing in and leaving Liam to clamber in after him.

Liam slams the car door behind him, shutting out the storm. It’s just as cold inside the jeep, but the reprieve from the harsh wind and sleet feels almost like heaven after walking in it for so long. He shrugs off his backpack and struggles to pull off his sodden coats, his arms getting stuck in the bulky wear. Theo shoots him an unimpressed look from beside him but reaches out to tug on one of the sleeves to help anyway.

“Thanks,” Liam mumbles as he tosses the coat into the back of the jeep. It smacks wetly against the floor.

Theo bobs his head in reply, but he’s no longer looking at Liam, his gaze is focused on something outside of the window. His eyes peering through the endless sheets of icy water falling from the sky. “Can you smell here?”

Liam blinks in surprise at the question. “What?”

“Monroe,” Theo says twisting back around to look at him. “Can you smell her?”

Liam tips his head back, his eyes falling closed as he focuses his senses. He inhales deeply through his nose, but all he can smell is the dust lingering in the car and Theo. The scents amplified by the water clinging to Theo’s clothes and hair.

“No,” Liam whispers, dropping his head back down and opening his eyes.

Theo is staring at him, his expression strangely intense.

“Theo?”

Theo swallows thickly. “Yeah, okay.” He turns his head to the side. “We’ll stay here for tonight, wait out the storm.”

“Here,” Liam repeats hopefully. “As in inside this dry car and not outside traipsing through the dark woods in a storm?”

“Yes, Liam, here as in all of that,” Theo snorts.

Liam slumps back against the door sighs in relief. “Thank fuck, because you were going to have to pry me from this jeep if we weren’t.”

Theo doesn’t say anything in response, he just shrugs out of his own wet coat and throws it into the back of the jeep with Liam’s. Liam watches tiredly as Theo crawls into the front passenger seat, a yawn tugging at his mouth. Theo traces the spider webbing lines in the windshield with his index finger. There’s dried blood in the cracks as though someone’s head had smacked into it during the crash. Liam wonders what happened to them, wonders if they survived or if they turned. He hopes they survived, hopes they’re alive and safe somewhere.

Liam slides down further into his seat, his hands fumbling with his backpack as he tugs his sleeping bag from it to wrap around himself. “Do you think the government is trying to fix this?”

“This,” Theo repeats questioningly, his hand dropping from the glass in front of him. “You mean the zombie outbreak.”

“Yeah,” Liam says around a yawn.

“Who knows,” Theo leans back into his seat, his head tipping back to stare at the metal canvas top of the jeep. “I haven’t seen any military members since this started.”

“Maybe we’re just always in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Liam tells him, holding on to his hope.

“Maybe,” Theo says quietly, Liam watches as his eyes fall shut. “Or maybe this can’t be fixed.”

Liam stares at the profile of his face, his eyes tracing the tired lines etched into his skin. “I think we can fix this,” He says softly, because why not. They’ve done the impossible before.

Theo laughs, the skin at the corner of his eyes crinkling as his mouth falls open. He tilts his head to the side his eyes opening so that he can look back at Liam. “I think you should go to sleep now, Dunbar, you’re obviously delirious with sleep deprivation.”

“I’m not,” Liam denies, but he closes his eyes anyway as he snuggles deeper into his sleeping bag. Exhaustion pours over him like the sleet pours over the earth. It carries him away.

* * *

 

Liam jerks awake with a gasp, heart pounding wildly in his chest. He blinks blearily up at the ceiling of the car and frowns. It’s dark, more so than it was before. Liam thinks it must be just before dawn. The rain has finally tapered off into random droplets taping against the roof.

He feels oddly warm despite the freezing temperature of the world around him. He shifts slowly, trying to quietly stretch his cramped legs and groans when his jeans pull taut over his groin. He’s achingly hard.

Liam panics eyes shooting over to where Theo is fast asleep, but the chimera doesn’t so much as move. Liam bites down roughly on his lip, nervously he shifts in his seat legs spreading farther apart to lessen the pressure on cock. He can smell his own arousal; sharp and bitter in the enclosed space. He’s surprised Theo hasn’t woken up yet. The sound of his heart is like thunder in Liam’s ears. He sucks in a breath and holds it as he reaches out to press on the bulge between his legs.

The breath punches out between his lips at the feeling of his hand, he can feel his cock twitch beneath his palm from within his jeans. Liam has to hold in a whine as he slowly rubs himself, his eyes cutting over to Theo worriedly. He pauses, fingertips brushing along the zipper of his jeans. He shouldn’t be thinking about pulling himself out, but he is.

He’s so hard and it’s been so long since he’s gotten off. He doesn’t take his eyes off Theo as he grips the little metal zipper between his thumb and forefinger and pulls it down. The teeth slowly spread apart, a low zit noise filling the air in tandem with Liam’s panting breath. There’s a thrill of fear at what he’s doing, but Liam’s too horny at this point to care anymore.

He swallows thickly past the knot in his throat and nudges his underwear to the side, so he can take his cock in hand. There’s pre-cum leaking from the slit and sliding down over the head of his cock. Liam closes his eyes as he swipes a thumb over it, gathering the sticky pearl of cum onto his fingertip and smearing it down the side of his hard length. He hums in delight at the feeling and then freezes, eyes shooting open to make sure that Theo’s still asleep. He listens to the steady beat of Theo’s heart and the soft slow breathing that escapes the chimeras parted lips. Liam keeps his eyes on Theo’s shadow enshrouded face as he fully grips himself, he tries not to stare too hard at Theo’s lips; tries not to imagine that they’re wrapped around him like they had been in his dream.

He bites at the inside of his cheek as he strokes himself, copper coating his mouth when his teeth dig in too far. Heat swirls through his stomach as pleasure zips through his veins. It feels so fucking good A whine builds up in the back of his throat as he strokes himself faster, his eyes falling closed again as the pleasure rises like a tidal wave. Images from his dream flicker through his mind clear as day. Theo down on his knees like he had been in the cabin, hands hot on Liam’s thighs as he swallowed down Liam’s cock. The whine breaks past his clenched teeth; high and needy.

Liam’s eyes flutter open and his heart stops when he sees Theo staring at him with wide eyes, his lips slightly parted like he wants to ask Liam what the hell he’s doing. Liam sucks in a surprised breath, hand stuttering to a halt. He can smell Theo’s embarrassment and arousal as they stare at one another. Their hearts are in a race to see whose can beat faster. Liam thinks his heart might be winning. Liam’s mouth falls open with every intention to apologize, but then Theo’s eyes drop to Liam’s lap and Liam moans without meaning to.

“Fuck,” he hears Theo breathe out, he can hear Theo swallow roughly as the chimera quickly turns away and sits up. Theo places his hands on the dashboard of the car and sucks in a loud shuddery breath.

“Shit,” Liam whimpers. “Sorry, sorry.”

He forces himself to release his cock, but he makes no move to put himself away. If he touches himself again so soon he might not be able to stop, not when he can smell how turned on Theo is.

There’s a tense silence in the car filled only by Liam’s panting breathes and both of their skittering heartbeats.

Liam squeezes his eyes closed. “Sorry,” he says again. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s okay,” Theo rasps. “It happens.”

Liam’s cock twitches at the low rumble of Theos voice, he has to fight the urge to buck up at empty air, his hands curl into fists on his thighs.

There’s another long pause between them and then Theo is speaking again. “You can finish,” Theo tells him haltingly, as though he’s questioning the words as he says them.

“What,” Liam chokes out.

He stares at the tense set of Theo’s shoulders.

“Dude, I’m not going to jerk one out in the car while you just sit there,”

Theo looks over his shoulder at Liam incredulously. “Weren’t you already kind of doing that?”

Liam flushes. “That’s not—I…” He clears his throat and lowers his voice. “You were sleeping, it’s different.”

Theo rolls his eyes. “And now I’m  _not_ sleeping because you decided you absolutely needed to rub one out instead of waiting until you were alone."

Liam huffs and turns his head away, warm with embarrassment. “We’re always together, I don’t have time to…” He makes a hand motion for jerking off and regrets it instantly. “I’m sorry okay, I just woke up and I needed…”

“It’s fine, Liam, I get it,” Theo says and rubs at his face with his hands tiredly. “Just hurry up and finish so we can go back to sleep.”

“You too, then,” Liam says before he can stop himself.

“Me too, what?” Theo asks in confusion.

Liam steels himself and turns back to Theo, very aware that his dick is still hard and leaking and out in the open between them. “I can smell you, you know. You’re just as sexually frustrated as I am, Theo.”

Theo’s shoulders hunch up to his ears as he glares at Liam. “So?”

 “So,” Liam says elongating the word. He pauses, licks his bottom lip nervously and starts again. “So, we both need to unwind.”

Theo stares at him unblinkingly, face going devoid of emotion. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting we both, take care of our problems,” Liam says meekly.

“You…” Theo starts, voice trailing off. He looks up at the low car ceiling then turns back around in his seat to stare at the fogged-up windshield.

“Or not,” Liam says defensively at the same time that Theo says; “Okay”

“Wait, seriously,” Liam asks sitting up a little higher. He watches as Theo nods his head stiffly. The chimera’s hands are curled up into tight balls on his thighs, Liam realizes that he probably shouldn’t be staring at Theo’s hands or Theo’s anything.

“I said okay, didn’t I,” Theo grumbles out.

Liam imagines his eyes are squeezed shut so that he doesn’t have to face this, whatever this is.

“Okay,” Liam says softly.

There’s a heavy tension in the car as neither of them makes a move to touch themselves. Liam doesn’t want to seem overly eager to get off, but his cock aches and the dream he had is still flashing through his head like a strobe light.

“Okay,” Liam says again deciding to be brave and slowly moves to touch himself.

He takes himself in his hand. He doesn’t stroke himself just yet, just rubs his thumb over the slit again and again then uses the tip of his nail to flick at the sensitive little spot beneath the head of his cock, his breath comes a little fast at the pleasant sensation. Liam’s ears are strained for the sound of Theo’s zipper and he nearly has a heart attack when he finally hears Theo undoing it. Liam bites down on his lip and finally moves his hand. Liam glances from the corner of his eyes and watches in wide-eyed fascination as Theo licks a line up his palm before lowering it to his lap. His breath catches in his throat when his eyes follow the movement and he sees as Theo grips his hard cock. It’s thick and dark with arousal

“Oh,” Liam whispers, then mentally curses himself when Theo flinches at the sound of his voice.

Liam pulls his bottom lip back between his teeth and bites down until he tastes blood. He tells himself that he’ll be quiet, but he also knows that he’s lying. Liam has never once been silent when taking care of himself. He breathes in through his nose and forces his eyes away from Theo’s cock, but he keeps his hearing focused.

Theo’s quiet as he strokes himself. The only noise Liam can hear from him is the slick sound of precum and saliva on skin and Theo’s soft panting as he jerks himself. Liam grips himself tighter and bites back a whimper as thoughts stampede through his head. He wants to watch Theo, wants to see how the chimera likes to move his hand, wants to see the face he makes when he’s close to coming.

“Fuck,” Liam whines and jerks himself faster.

He hears an uptick in Theo’s heartbeat and peeks over at Theo. Theo’s head it bowed low, his arm moving quickly. He can just make out the chimera’s shadowy profile from where he is. Theo’s mouth is parted, breath coming out in quick little clouds of white, his eyes are closed and there’s a muscle in his jaw that twitches on every downward stroke of his hand. Liam drops his eyes down to Theo’s hand. Liam can just make out the tip of Theo’s cock, a small pearl of precum glistening at the tip of it and Liam wants to put his mouth on it; wants to lick at the tip with his tongue until Theo moans loud and wanton. It was Liam’s suggestion to do this, but he thinks he might have just dug himself a deeper hole. 

“Fuck, Theo,” Liam breathes, when he watches Theo’s hand twist on an upward stroke, the chimera’s thumb catching the droplet of cum and spreading it down. Theo’s eyes fly open, his head jerking around to stare at Liam in surprise and Liam cums with Theo watching. His hot release coating his hand and easing the glide as he continues to work himself over until his body can’t take it anymore. “Fuck.”

Theo groans from the front seat and Liam fights to open his eyes, he has no idea when they fell closed. He can smell Theo’s release in the air, spicy and heady, and Liam’s breath is punched out of his lungs all over again at the knowledge that Theo came while looking at him. Liam watches as Theo comes down from his orgasm high, he’s nervous about what Theo is going to say about what they just did. Friends don’t jerk off and say each other’s names—Friends don’t usually jerk off around each other at all. Liam waits and waits, but Theo doesn’t say anything. Theo doesn’t even open his eyes to acknowledge Liam’s presence when his breathing has finally evened out again. Fear begins to coil in Liam’s gut. He doesn’t want this to fuck them up.

“Theo—” Liam starts but Theo pushes open his door and is throwing himself out of it before Liam can finish. The car door slams closed, and Liam is left alone, his soft cock in his hand and an ache in his chest. He thumps his head back against the seat and tells himself he’s not going to cry.

He’s lying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took forever.  
> Also, did anyone catch the horror movie/ Theo thing?


	11. Lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Theo’s chapter is now posted as well for those of you that didn’t see it.

* * *

Liam waits quietly, lips clenched between his teeth and tears of frustration building in his eyes as time ticks by, but Theo doesn’t come back. Guilt eats away at Liam’s insides because it’s _his fault_. He couldn’t have just waited or pushed away the dream. No, he had to go and jerk off in a car with a chimera less than two feet away from him and even worse, he had to say Theo’s name while doing it.

“You fucking idiot,” he whispers harshly at himself, his teeth tearing through his lip and coating his tongue with the taste of copper.

When the sun finally rises Liam is still all alone in a car that smells like sex and regret. His eyes burn from crying and a lack of sleep every time he blinks, his reflection blurring in and out of focus in the window across from him. He looks terrible, remorse etched into the worried lines of his face and bruises marring the skin beneath his eyes. He wonders how long he’s looked like this, how thin and drawn his visage has become since the start of this hell trip.

Liam had thought that Theo would come back after whatever freak out he was having, but it’s been hours now since the chimera ran off. The sun is steadily rising even though it’s covered by a wall of angry clouds, the rain starting up again with a vengeance outside the jeep. Liam thumps his head back against the door, a repeated sound, almost like a heartbeat as he contemplates what to do. He could wait here, let Theo work through it on his own, but there’s a nagging voice in the back of his head that keeps on whispering: _What if he doesn’t come back? What if he leaves you alone again?_

The voice makes his stomach churn with nausea and his hands curl into fists on his thighs, the threat of claws prickling against his palms, because there is always the possibility that the voice is right. Liam could be left here waiting forever, lonely and unsure of what to do next.

Then, there is the equally unsavory option number two. And, that is that he could leave the dry shelter of the jeep to traipse through the woods after a freaked-out chimera. The cons of which are getting drenched in freezing cold water and the distinct possibility of another fistfight, one that would probably be worse than the others they've had.

Liam sits up straight, and uncurls his hands, his claws slowly shifting back into human nails. He wipes his hands on the leg of his jeans, a smudge of dark red lining the areas just above his knees. He reaches over the back seat and pulls his coat from the storage area of the jeep, the material is still slightly damp from the day before but it's better protection against the weather than just a thin old sweater. He slips into the coat and gives himself a small reassuring nod.

"Okay, he whispers to himself. "A fight is better than just sitting here and waiting for him to come back."

_It's better than a lot of the other things that are racing through his mind._

He glances at Theo’s coat and their backpacks, debating on whether or not he should take them with him. He jerks his eyes up to look out the window at the brewing storm rolling in over him, it’s been raining for a while now, the water has probably washed away most of Theo’s scent. A sigh slips through his lips as he snatches up Theo’s coat and rolls it up tightly to stuff into Theo’s bag, he doesn’t know how far Theo has gone so it’s better if he just brings their things along instead of having to backtrack later on. He shoulders his bag and clutches Theo’s tightly in one hand, the other hesitating on the handle of the door, finger tapping out a frustrated beat against the plastic.

The thought of stepping back out into the painfully cold torrent of water makes him grimace, but he can’t handle not knowing where he stands with Theo any longer. He tugs at the handle, the door clicking open and inviting a rush of noise into the car. What had been muted sheets of rain is now a roaring river of water from the sky. He wrinkles his nose and shivers already feeling the chill of the air seeping into the open spaces of his clothes. He hates Theo right now for making him do this, but he hates himself a little more.

He breathes in deeply, eyes fluttering shut as he hops out of the jeep. His shoes splash in a puddle surrounding the entire car, his socks squelch uncomfortably, his toes already going numb. It’s hard to smell anything over the scent of wet earth and rainwater, but he just manages to catch Theo’s scent on a passing breeze. It's faint and hard to hold on, but it's there. He sucks in one last steadying breath, shuts the car door behind him and starts his trek through the trees, his eyes on the footprints in the muddy snow that are slowly being washed away, his nose focused on Theo.

He walks and walks, deeper into the woods, the trees growing closer together, the mud getting thicker, harder to trudge through. He hunches in on himself, the rain is lighter here thanks to the closely grown trees, but the scent of moss and mildew is stronger, overpowering. It almost makes him lose Theo’s scent.

He winds his way around trunks and beneath low hanging branches until finally, he breaks through a thicket of trees and halts. Theo is nowhere to be seen, but his scent is heavier here, clearer than it had been when he first started searching. Liam scans the area carefully and growls. There, several feet to his left is a haphazard pile of clothes and hastily kicked off boots. He stares at them in shocked surprise, there’s footprints in the mud beside the shoes and then just beside them there are paw prints. Theo had shifted.

“You childish fucking asshole,” Liam growls as he stomps towards the clothes and snatched them up. He angrily shakes the mud and clinging bits of snow from them before rolling them and stuffing them into the top of Theo’s bag without care.

Liam doesn’t know if he should continue trudging through the woods or go back to the car. The rain is picking up, the water clinging to his lashes and burning his eyes. Liam wishes he had an umbrella, mostly to keep the rain off himself, but also to beat Theo with when he finally finds the infuriating chimera. He’s torn between being angry and being hurt.

“Theo,” he calls out and wonders how far his voice will carry through the storm. Thunder rumbles overhead, loud booms shaking the trees. He shivers, body hunching in on itself. “Fine,” He grumbles out, lips trembling. “Be an asshole, see if I care.”

He crosses his arms over his chest and Theo’s bag smacks against his stomach, heavily. Liam narrows his eyes as he stares down his chest at it, watches the fabric gather droplets of rain, and then dribble off the side to join the water on the ground. He thinks about throwing the bag into the puddle just beside him and leaving it there for Theo to find. He eyes the puddle for a long moment, watches as it grows with the heavy downpour, muddy waves sliding into tree roots and washing away small rocks. Liam’s not going to stoop to that level, not yet, but he’ll keep the idea in the back of his mind, just in case.

He turns on heal, wet and tired and beyond ready to flee back to the safe recesses of the jeep when he hears it. A low familiar growl on the tumultuous wind, a growl he would recognize anywhere. _Theo._

A growl of his own slips through his lips, his arms falling back to his sides, hands tightening around the straps of Theo’s backpack. He marches through the trees towards the sound with purpose, his shoes sticking and squelching in the slippery mud.

There’s movement up ahead, just between the trees, low growls and a pained yip filtering through the roaring air. Liam walks a little faster, worry growing in his stomach. He hastens his steps and bursts into a small opening where a dead oak tree stands, a wolf has it’s head shoved into an opening at the base of the tree trunk, mud flecking its black fur making spots of it look brown and red.

Theo,” he calls out towards the wolf quietly, cautiously not wanting to startle him.

The wolf rears back from the tree and twists around to face Liam. There’s a small red fox clamped between his teeth, droplets of blood dripping from his mouth and mixing with the rainwater. There are crushed leaves clinging to the fur of his face, shocks of yellow and red. Liam would have laughed any other day at the sight of Theo, but today he can only stare. Theo’s green eyes watch him carefully, cautiously, like _Liam_ is something wild.

He licks the rain from his lips nervously, his feet shuffling in the mud, trying to keep himself from sinking in and getting stuck. He clears his throat. “Why didn’t you come back,” Liam asks even though he knows that Theo can’t answer him.

_I thought you were hurt, or dead or just… Gone._

Liam doesn’t say any of these things out loud, he doesn’t want his fears to be put out into the world, but he’s sure Theo knows it’s what he’s thinking because the wolf finally drops his eyes, his head lowering slightly like its being weighed down by guilt.

He looks away, his eyes catching on the oak tree behind Theo and staying there. He holds out Theo’s backpack.

“Do you want your clothes back,” He asks.

 It’s a simple question, one Theo can answer by nodding his large head. There are a million more questions, and apologies sitting on the tip of his tongue that’s he’s too terrified to utter out loud, but he knows he needs to say them. He just would rather say them face to face with Theo, not a wolf.

Theo doesn’t nod or move at all. Liam looks back down at him and shakes the bag a little fruitlessly.

“Are you planning on shifting back, or not,” He asks, a small coil of dread starting to form in his stomach. He hopes the answer is yes.

Theo drops the fox on the ground and nudges it towards Liam with his nose like an offering. For what, Liam doesn’t know. Maybe, it’s an apology, one that doesn’t require them to speak. Or perhaps, it’s forgiveness without Liam having to ask for it. Liam can question the motive all he wants, but it doesn’t do him any good without a way to understand the answer.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Liam says quietly, his eyes dropping to the muddy fox on the ground to hide the hurt in his gaze. Theo is doing this to avoid him, to avoid having a conversation. He sucks in a shaky breath and turns around.

“Keep your fox,” he grunts out then walks away, he’s not going back to the car, but he is making his way towards the road where it’s parked. They have a long way to go and Liam is suddenly more desperate to get home than he’s ever been.

* * *

 

It’s been raining off and on all day, the water coming down in cold torrents and sheets of ice, the temperamental sky refusing to stop completely. The weather does little to improve Liam’s already foul mood. He’d hoped that a day would be long enough for Theo to avoid speaking to him, but as the sun starts to dip down behind the barren trees Liam starts to worry that it wasn’t. The chimera is still a wolf, his paws nearly silent as he pads along behind Liam, making Liam carry his bag and supplies for him like a pack mule.

Lightning flashes across the sky followed by a loud clap of thunder, the sound makes Liam flinch, his steps coming to an abrupt halt, his feet starting to sink down into the mud. Theo slinks past him without a backward glance, his ears pressed close to his head in preparation for the next strike of lightning. Liam watches him walk ahead, his paws leaving prints in the earth that fill with the falling rain. It makes him think about the Beast of Gevuadan and how Sebastian Valet had originally become a werewolf by drinking the rainwater from a wolfs paw print; it makes him think about Mason. He watches the paw prints slowly disappear, the dips turning into puddles. He could really use his best friend right now, he needs Mason’s advice on how to handle this situation because he feels so lost.

Liam knows that if the problem is left like this for much longer he’s going to snap and when it happens it won’t be pretty. It never is. He swallows thickly past the lump in his throat and lifts his eyes from the mud. Theo is up ahead, the wolf's dark green eyes watching him curiously as he waits for Liam to start walking again.

“Are you going to stay like that all day,” Liam asks quietly as another strike of lightning spindles across the sky, the vein blue light flashing over them, washing them in color and then fading away.

He stares at Theo as the loud crash of thunder sounds, waiting for the wolf to shift or nod or anything really. Instead, Theo turns back around and continues walking as though they had never stopped. Liam supposes that in itself is an answer. They need to talk about what happened but if Theo would rather be childish then that’s fine, Liam can be childish too.

“Fine,” he snaps, his hands shaking at his sides. He doesn’t know if it’s anger or fear that makes them tremble.

Liam tips his head back as he walks, rain pattering against his cheeks. The sky above him is gray; a wall of unbreakable clouds. It fits Liam’s mood. It fits everything.

* * *

 

When Liam wakes up the next morning it's to the nudging of his leg and a large black wolf avoiding his eyes. Liam tries to not feel hurt, but his scent starts to take on the sour stench of sadness and there's nothing he can do about it. He pushes himself up to his feet, rolls up his damp sleeping bag, hooks it to his backpack and then sets off. He keeps his eyes and his words to himself as he trails behind Theo, the chimera's bag swinging from his hand. He can feel the tiny coil of anger growing in his stomach, becoming bigger and bigger as the hours wear on. He knows it's going to snap, he just hopes he doesn't do something stupid when it does. He doesn’t think he can handle any more problems in his life, or any more reason for Theo to hate him.

* * *

 

Liam is slowly losing his mind; the rain and snow seem to be never-ending. He's tired of being damp, and cold, and grumpy. He's tired of having no one to talk to because apparently, three days is not enough time for Theo to be over his fear of conversation. Liam fucked up, he gets that, but this is getting ridiculous.

“So, I said your name while jerking off, it’s no big deal,” He huffs at Theo’s back, his face heating up with embarrassment at the words falling from his lips. He wishes he thought things through before saying them. Though, if he did that then he wouldn’t be in this mess to being with. “Stop being childish and shift back now so we can have a fucking conversation like adults.”

He growls, wiping angrily at his face as water runs down it. Liam feels like he’s drowning with every step. He squints at the black wolf in front of them and then blinks in confusion when the wolf completely disappears. He comes to an abrupt halt and peers around through the trees, but he doesn’t see Theo anywhere.

“Theo,” He calls out hesitantly, wondering if he’s finally run the chimera off with his horrible mood. Theo reappears in front of him, his teeth clamping down on Liam’s sleeve, he pulls and Liam yelps in surprise.

“What are you doing,” He grunts out and tries to shake Theo off him. It’s not a hard press of teeth but it still irritates Liam. Theo growls at him, his teeth hooking into Liam’s sleeve again and jerking him to the right, harder this time with purpose.

“Theo, what the fuck, stop,” he seethes as Theo makes him stumble and almost crash down into the mud. “Alright, alright, I get it you want me to follow so let the hell go.”

Theo releases him and turns away, slipping through a set of trees and Liam grudgingly follows him. The rain doesn’t cease but it does stop falling on him, he looks up in confusion and sees the lip of a rock reaching out, blocking the sky, but Theo keeps walking, so Liam keeps following him until they’re caged in by rock on both sides. It shields them from the harsh winds. Liam can admit to himself that he’s impressed with Theo’s find.

“Good job Lassie, you found a cave,” Liam bites out, his arms crossed over his chest like a petulant little kid. Theo looks over at him, his green eyes wide even in the dimly lit cavern, Liam’s sure that if wolfs could roll their eyes then Theo would. Liam just barely tamps down the urge to make a face at the wolf before Theo twists his head away and keeps walking, his nails clacking against the stone and echoing off the walls. The shadows of the cave swallow the wolf whole as Liam watches. He wonders what Theo is doing, wonders if the wolf is just curious about how long the cave goes or if he’s just desperate to get some space between himself and a grumpy Liam.

Liam takes several steps back and comes to an abrupt halt when his body meets the wall, he stands there for a second before allowing his tired body to slide down it, the rough stones catching on the material of his coat and making a _shhhhh_ noise until his ass lands heavily on the cold ground. He feels frozen to the core, his clothes and coat uncomfortably damp. He hates the sticky feeling on his skin, it drives him crazy. He sighs, and tips his head back, it thumps loudly against the stone wall, a sharp pang of pain resonating within his skull. He lets out a quiet hiss and drops his head forward to rub at the spot, helping the pain recede quicker.

There’s a low animalistic grunt from the back of the cave and the sound of something breaking. Liam twists his head to look into the gloom, he has no idea how far it goes and he’s not keen on finding out at all. He just wants to sit here, close his eyes and pretend that he’s somewhere else, somewhere warm and crowded with people. There’s another low grunt from the darkness, but he doesn’t move. There’s a tiny, vindictive part of him that hopes there’s a bear back there eating Theo, preferably a zombie bear, though he knows that animals aren’t affected by the zombie virus. He feels guilty before the thought even completely forms.

He gets it, really, he does. Sometimes it’s better to just avoid your problems until they go away, but this one isn’t going away. It’s sticking with them the longer Theo stays as a wolf. This isn’t something they can avoid forever, not when they still have so far left to go. He pulls his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms around them, his head resting on the pillow of his limbs. He closes his eyes and breathes through the riot of emotions coursing through him.

There’s a clatter just in front of him that has Liam’s shooting up to his feet, prepared to fight, but it’s just Theo. There’s a large branch sitting on the ground between his paws, the wood dead and dry, perfect for making a fire. Theo taps it with his paw and pushes it closer towards Liam.

_He wants Liam to make a fire._

Liam drags his eyes up from the branch, his gaze meeting Theo’s, his breath coming quicker as anger builds up inside of him. He doesn’t break eye contact as he bends over, grabs up the stick and throws it as hard as he can out of the cave into the rain.

“Fetch, Theo,” He snaps before turning on heel and marching away. He’s too hot with anger now to feel the cold, he no longer cares about building a fire for warmth. He just wants to get far away from Theo. The chimera’s left him twice now, isn’t it Liam’s turn to go?

* * *

 

He doesn’t know how far he’s walked or where he’s going, he doesn’t really care at this point. Liam just wants to put as much distance between himself and Theo as possible. He knows deep down that what he’s doing is childish, throwing the stick and stomping away isn’t mature, or a healthy way to cope with his anger, but he needs this. Needs to dig into something with his claws, needs to ruin something that isn’t his own palms.

The rain has eased up. It’s nothing more than light drizzle now, a mist that clings to his freezing cheeks. He ducks beneath branches and smacks dead vines from his path. His shoes slapping loudly against the mud as he stomps his way through the woods. There’s a noise up ahead, a shuffling squelching sound and a guttural rasping, the noises are a dead giveaway for what he’s walking into. Still, his steps don’t falter, instead, they hasten, his movements getting quicker as he pushes himself through the dead underbrush.

The O’s don’t notice him, not at first, and that just works to piss Liam off even more. He’s tired of being ignored, tired of the silence. He can slowly feel the little threads holding him together snap one by one. Liam growls loudly, the teeth in his mouth lengthening into fangs. The O’s stumble around turning their milky eyes on him, their gruesome mouths opening wide with hunger as they start to lumber towards him, hands outstretched. Liam sucks in a deep breath, the rancid smell of rotting flesh assaulting his senses. He holds still, lets the O’s make their way towards him, anticipation thrumming in his veins in tandem with his rage. 

* * *

 

Liam shouldn’t be playing with dead things, especially things that want to eat him. Theo would be furious if he knew what Liam is doing now, how reckless he’s being. The thought makes Liam laugh, it’s a sharp and bitter sound, one that bounces off the trees around him.

“Fuck Theo,” he growls and shoves his hand through another O’s head. He’s soaked from the rain, the water washing away the blood on his hands. He doesn’t feel any better, just more exhausted than before, the mud and fighting draining him completely. He's breathing hard, his muscles burning with the effort to stay upright. "Fuck," He whispers harshly to himself. "Fuck him." 

He looks down at the mutilated corpse as it drops to the ground. His stomach twists with nausea in a way that it hasn’t in months. His stomach empties itself right there, his eyes watering as he struggles for breath. His throat burning as stomach acid sticks in his esophagus. He staggers back, legs trembling weakly and falls into a puddle, warm water sluicing down his cheeks with the icy cold rivulets of rain and he realizes he’s crying again. The realization just makes him angrier. He pushes himself up to his feet, there’s several more O’s slowly trudging their way towards him, but he doesn’t have the strength left to fight.

He stands, feet sliding as he twists around. Liam doesn’t remember which way he came from, the woods all look the same to him, and there are no footprints to direct him back, the rain having washed them away. He spins around slowly and picks a direction, he can worry about being lost later, right now he just needs to get away from the O’s, the last thing he needs right now is to be bitten, but his movements are so slow, lack of sleep and mental weariness catching up with him.

Liam turns and walks backward, his eyes flickering over the O’s. There’s five maybe six, he can’t tell as the sky opens up again and pours down in frozen sheets.

He stumbles back three more steps and curses himself for being so stupid. He shouldn’t have run away from Theo, now he’s going to be eaten by O’s. A sharp crack rings through the air almost like thunder but the sound comes from beneath Liam rather than above him and then he’s falling, water closing over his head as he plunges down into the icy recesses of a hidden lake.

The water is freezing, the cold sucking the air from his lungs like a black hole. His eyes burn when he opens them in search of the hole he had fallen through. He kicks hard at the water, his hands high above his head, fingers scrabbling along the thick ice.

_He’s going to drown._

The temperature causes his muscles to cramp up making it hard to move his limbs. Liam begins to sink deep down into the water, the light of the sun getting farther and farther away from his grasp. His head feels heavy, too full, almost like it’s going to explode.  His eyes flutter closed exhaustion weighing them down, his lungs ache within his chest, desperate for a breath of air.

 _There are worse ways to die,_ Liam thinks as he arms float to his sides, his fingers curling into his palms.

Something grabs him by the back of his coat and jerks him up, up, up, but he can’t get his eyes to open again. He’s too tired, too weak, he just wants to breathe.

His head breaches the surface of the water, his body following after as he dragged up and over the lip of the hole and across the rough, splintering ice. It feels like forever before he comes to a stop and whatever has him finally releases its hold on his coat. He coughs, water expelling from his lungs in loud wet hacks, his nails dig into the earth, mud squishing between his fingers. It grounds him to know he’s back on actual land and not on the ice. He opens his stinging eyes and slowly lifts his head. He already knows who saved him. It’s the same person that always has.

_Theo._

The black wolf stands in front of him, his fur plastered close to his body making him look strangely thin and angular. The sight of him makes Liam angry. The feeling rears up inside of him, ugly and irrational.

“What,” he chokes out, with a hollow laugh. His eyes boring into Theo’s. “Not going to yell at me? Not going to call me an idiot?”

Theo just stares back at him, green eyes unreadable. Liam sucks in a deep breath, the air aches in his lungs, he exhales slowly, breath coming out shaky. He can smell fear in the air and it’s not his own, it’s Theo’s. Liam had scared him. His teeth clatter noisily in his mouth as shivers wrack through him, but even over the loud chatter, he can hear Theo’s racing heartbeat. Liam wonders how fast he had run through the woods to find Liam, how hard he had to swim to pull both himself and Liam out of the freezing water and back to the safety of the land.

Liam drops his eyes to the mud. He feels ashamed and guilty. Theo had just risked his life for Liam’s again and here Liam was yelling at him, trying to rile him up just so Theo would shift back and not leave Liam all alone. Liam wonders when he got to be so selfish, his mother would be so disappointed in him.

“Sorry,” he whispers, his voice low and raspy. He drops his head onto the ground and shivers. “I’m sorry.” He should have said it days ago, right after he moaned-out Theo’s name. He should have said it when he found Theo in the woods or any other time during the last three days they had traveled together in stony silence.

When he finally looks up again Theo is gone.

 

* * *

 

There’s a fire burning when Liam finally finds his way back to the cave, a set of dry clothes laid out next to it, hope blooms in Liam’s chest and he glances around ready to see Theo’s familiar face somewhere in the shadows. The hope is crushed though when instead of finding another person all he finds is the black wolf. Liam swallows back a whine, his clothes dripping water onto the floor of the cavern. Slowly, he peels them off, his movements clumsy with the cold and exhaustion. He keeps his eyes on the growing puddle beneath his feet.

 _It’s okay_ , he tells himself. _You’re okay. Theo just needs time. You can give him that without being a dick about it. Without making him worry and save you again and again._

It’s like a mantra in his head. People have different ways of coping with things that stress them out or frighten them. Liam’s is anger; everyone knows that, especially Theo, the chimera is the one that pointed it out to him in the first place. He can deal with this. He _will_ deal with this.

“Thank you,” he murmurs at Theo, his eyes flicking up hesitantly to find the wolf’s as he slips into his dry clothing. He tries for a small smile but knows it falls flat. He glances around the cave, his eyes falling into his bag leaning against the wall where he left it. He drags it towards the fire, where he settles down close to the flames and pulls his sleeping bag out to wrap around his shivering form.

A low gurgling whine fills the air and it takes an embarrassingly long second for Liam to realize that the noise had come from his own stomach. He doesn’t remember when he had last eaten if it was yesterday or the day before that. He places a hand over his abdomen and presses in, he’s gotten so thin in the last few months. He licks his lips, the skin dry and cracked from the cold, the swipe of his tongue makes them sting as his numb fingers fumble with the zipper of his bag. There are only a few cans of food left, they’ll probably have to hit another store soon. He glances at Theo from the corner of his eye and bites back a sigh. Well, Liam will have to hit another store soon, anyway.

He pulls out a can of Pork N Beans and carefully claws around the rim of it, the metal screeching with every press of his sharp claws. He doesn’t bother holding the can over the fire to heat them up, just the thought of waiting exhausts him. Instead, he tips the tin up to his mouth and sucks down a large mouthful, the jagged edges of the metal prick uncomfortably at the sensitive skin of his mouth, but he ignores it in favor of pulling the can away and chewing. The beans and tiny chunks of hotdog are cold, but not entirely disgusting. Then again, he’s probably just used to this type of apocalypse cuisine.

He takes one more mouthful, chews slowly, his eyes on the flames, then holds out the can towards Theo. He doesn’t know if the wolf has eaten today. He hasn’t been paying much attention, far too wrapped up in his own emotions.

The wolf does nothing at first and Liam’s arm starts to droop but he doesn’t stop holding it out, this is the least Liam can do after causing so much trouble.

Finally, Theo steps closer, his movements hesitant, unsure as he comes towards Liam. There’s a pause and then Theo takes a hold of the can between his large teeth and steps back. Liam listens as he tips the can over, spilling the beans and chunks of meat onto the smooth stone floor of the cave so that he can eat. Liam feels like he can breathe a little easier.

The sun has set completely now, the days growing shorter and shorter as winter draws near. Liam scoots closer to the fire, it’s low, but warm and reassuring as the shadows settle in around them. He holds out his hands, letting the warmth of the flames sink into his aching flesh.

“Go to sleep,” he tells Theo, his voice a soft whisper in the dark. “I’ll keep watch first tonight.”

There’s a tiny huff of acknowledgment, the noise painfully reminiscent of Theo’s snort. The sound sends a dull pang through Liam. He turns his head to the wolf and watches as he pads away from the fire to curl up in a ball on the left side of the cave; his black fur fading into the shadows.

Liam pulls his fingers away from the fire and covers his face, his cheeks are freezing and numb, his palms smell like smoke and lake water. He breathes in deeply through his nose and exhales quietly through his mouth before dropping his hands. Liam listens to the rain and the crackle of burning wood as the night wears on. It’s calming, the sounds soothing away the last remnants of his rage until there’s nothing left in him but a feeling of helplessness.

He turns his head away from the fire, spots dancing in his eyes as he reaches for his bag again, the mouth of it left open from before. He reaches inside and starts to pull everything out. It’s mostly clothes now, thin and worn and coated with fine layers of dirt, but still wearable. He folds them up carefully, making them as small as he can before he sets them to the side. He pulls out the last few cans of food and sets them with his clothes before reaching back into his bag and fumbling around. His hand touches something cold and smooth, his frowns, and pulls it from the bottom of his bag.

The object sits perfectly in his large palm, the light of the fire glinting off the metal and glass. It’s his cell phone. Liam had forgotten all about it after everything had gone radio silent. He rubs his thumb along the front of it fondly, it’s long dead, a corner of the face chipped from being thrown around in his bag. He wishes he had a way to charge it. He’s desperate to be able to see his mother’s face again, to read over the last stupid text messages he’d exchanged with Mason or listen to his father voice on his voice mail. He closes his eyes briefly and raises his arm to throw the phone. There’s no point in keeping it, it’s useless, but his fingers refuse to let it go.

A tiny sound of distress slips through his lips as he drops his hand back to his lap. He glares down at the phone and sets it down with his pile of clothes.

Liam lifts his bag up and dumps it out into the ground in front of him. Dry leaves and something else falls from his bag, he looks down at the object and stiffens in surprise.

It’s the map.

The one Theo had written on, the map that had save Liam’s life in more ways than one. With shaking hands, he reaches for it. The map opens easily, the light of the fire illuminating the lines. His chest hurts as he stares down at it in his hand. He remembers being alone on the road, remembers being scared and angry much like he is now.

_Don’t get lost or eaten, Dumbass._

The words begin to blur, his eyes growing warm. He glances over at Theo and his heart clenches. Liam never knew you could miss someone who isn’t gone, never knew you could be so desperate to speak to someone sitting right beside you. Not until now. He clutches the map tightly in his hands, the paper crinkling in his grip.

“Theo, please shift back,” He whispers at the sleeping wolf, his voice quivering with held back tears. He pulls his knees closer to his chest and tips his head forward to hide his face even though there is no one paying attention to him. Liam told himself he would give Theo time, but that doesn't stop him from wanting Theo to be human again. “I feel so…”

He chokes, his words cutting off as his tears sink into the fabric of his jeans.

_Alone._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter took so long and that it was probably confusing as hell. My only defense is that I drunk wrote this one. I'll probably rewrite a good portion of it at a later date.


	12. Surprise, Surprise.

Something is repeatedly thumping against Liam’s outer thigh. Liam wrinkles his nose in annoyance and swats at it lazily with his hand. He’s too tired to open his eyes and look at whatever it is. The thumping stops briefly only to start right back up this time accompanied by a gruff voice.

“Liam wake up,” There’s a huff of irritation and then a harder nudge to his leg.

Liam groans, his eyes slowly peeling themselves open. He blinks blearily at the crook of his arm in confusion before rolling onto his back. Rubbing a hand tiredly over his face he tries to focus on the blob above him.

Theo is standing over him in the looming darkness of the cave, Theo with his shaggy dark hair and too green eyes. Theo with two hands and a smirk that’s infuriating and human. Liam’s mouth parts in surprise.

“About time sleeping beauty,” Theo murmurs when he sees Liam staring up at him. “Come on, get up.”

Words are stuck in Liam’s throat. A plethora of questions and apologies, but he can’t seem to dislodge them. All he can do it stare up at Theo. Relief and happiness filling his lungs like oxygen, he finally feels like he can breathe again.

He glances around the cave and for the first time really takes in just how dark it is, the hour before sunrise encompassing them.

“We’re leaving right now,” he croaks out, hands stretching above his head as he fights back a yawn. “Why?”

There’s a flicker of surprise on Theo’s face, there and gone like a flash of lightning. Liam knows Theo expected him to ask why he’s human again after days of being shifted into a wolf. He knows that Theo probably expected to be yelled at and punched in the face. Honestly, Liam wants to do all of those things. He wants to scream and rant and hit Theo. He wants to tell Theo how much of an asshole he is for leaving Liam alone like that but he’s too scared of losing Theo again. Liam doesn’t want to travel all the way back to California with only his own voice to hear.

Neither of them moves for a moment, and then slowly Theo twists his head the tension in his body easing. He nods at the mouth of the cave. “The rain stopped a little bit ago. We should move while there’s a break.”

Liam bobs his head in agreement, they don’t usually travel at night, but with winter settling in the days have grown shorter and shorter, the sun disappearing behind the hills and tree quicker than ever. Liam rolls from his sleeping bag onto his knees and wraps it up to attach to his backpack. He’ll travel at any hour as long as he has the chance of staying dry.

He can’t resist peeking over his shoulder periodically at Theo as they pack up their things. The third time he looks over at Theo he catches Theo staring right back, his eyes alight with curiosity. Liam flushes with embarrassment and looks away. He wonders if Theo heard him last night.

How pathetic would that be? Liam thinks, his hands stuffing things into his backpack with more force than necessary.  Theo hearing you cry about being lonely.

The sensation of eyes on his back has him hunching his shoulders up defensively as he tries not to think about the night before. Shame and embarrassment coil in his chest. He tries to push the thoughts away from his mind but they won’t budge.

“Theo,” He says softly, hands falling still. He has no idea what to say next all he knows is that they need to talk. Things have a way of festering if left alone too long and he doesn’t want that to happen.

“I know,” Theo says, voice a little too loud in the quiet of the cave. There’s a pause and then he speaks again softer this time. “I know, just... just not right now, okay?”

Liam bites down on his lip, holding back the questions building up inside of him.

_Are we alright now?_

_Are we okay again?_

_Will you stop leaving me alone?_

Liam glances over his shoulder and nods. His voice is just as hushed as Theo’s was. “Okay.”

They don’t have to talk about it right now.

* * *

 

The lull in the rain didn’t last more than a few hours, but they made it pretty far in the short amount of time they had before it started up again. They found a road, large houses spaced closely together on either side of it. It’s dangerous to venture so near to suburban areas, but Liam’s pretty sure they’re both far too sick of the mud to care anymore. He’d rather fight a herd of O’s than step foot back into the sticky wasteland of the surrounding woods.

Cautiously, they travel uphill, the cement becoming slick with forming ice and slush. Liam’s terrified that at any moment he might slip and slide all the way back down to their starting point. He digs his feet hard into the concrete with each step, hands held out in front of him, fingers numb with the cold as he braces himself to fall with every step he takes.

“You look ridiculous,” Theo comments after hours of silence. They’re walking side by side, but neither of them has said a word or even looked at each other since this morning.

“I’m being cautious,” Liam says, wobbling slightly when his shoe skids across a tiny patch of ice.

Theo’s hand closes around his wrist, steadying him, before letting go. “Yeah, well,” Theo says and moves a little quicker, leaving Liam behind. “You still look ridiculous.”

“And you look like an asshole,” Liam huffs out under his breath.

There’s a low chuckle from in front of him. “Stop looking at my ass then, Dunbar.”

Liam’s eyes drop from where they’re glaring at the back of Theo’s head to his ass of their own volition. He blinks in surprise, his face heating up before he jerks his head to the side. “I’m not!”

They don’t make eye contact, but they do talk after that. It’s a meaningless conversation, one where Theo makes fun of him and Liam calls him names, but it’s a conversation none-the-less.

 

* * *

 Liam still feels a little guilty about breaking into places, it doesn’t matter if they’re long abandoned or not. Or, in this case, never actually inhabited. The house is brand new, the scent of paint and plaster still sticks to the inside of it as Theo pushes open the front door, his claws scraping across the wood. It’s the only completely finished house standing here. The rest of the houses are nothing but bones in the growing darkness, their wooden frames rotting as the weather eats away at them.

Liam wrinkles his nose as he follows Theo inside. The smell of paint irritates his nose but it’s better than a lot of things he’s smelled since becoming a werewolf.

Theo’s eyes burn gold as he gazes around the shadowed room. “Come on, let’s look for a fireplace.”

The floorboards don’t creek beneath their feet, the structure doesn’t groan with the wind. The home is sturdy and dry, Liam hasn’t been this thrilled about a place to sleep in weeks. He splits away from Theo, going right when Theo veers left as they search for a place to start a fire. Dry inside or not, the air is still entirely too frigid to sleep without the comfort of a good fire.

Liam steps into a large room, the ceiling high above him. It would be amazing with furniture, but the place is empty, void of anything other than Liam and Theo like most places are these days. On the far wall, there’s a giant brick fireplace, the red stones complimenting the color of the floor and walls. Liam steps closer to it, eyes tracing the mantle. “Theo, I found it.”

He listens to the soft taps of footsteps as Theo walks through the house towards him. “Great,” Theo says as he steps into the room. “Let’s see if we can find something to burn.

They find a wooden workbench in the garage. It’s easy to break apart and use as kindling. The legs are the first to go, they catch slowly, Theo using the remains of an old shirt to help them start and then there is both light and warmth in that great, cold room.

They sit close to the fire, falling into their old routine. Theo getting food and Liam pulling out the crossword puzzle. He toys with it, the pages fluttering beneath his fingers. He doesn’t look at Theo as he asks. “Do you want to play?”

Theo claws open a can of peaches from Liam’s backpack and nods his head. “Yeah, pick one,” he tells Liam as he scoops out a peach and drops it into his mouth. He takes two more before handing the con over to Liam and stealing the puzzle book, his eyes flickering over the questions of the page Liam had stopped on. “We’ll do this one.”

Liam fishes a peach out of the can and waits for Theo to read off the first question as he eats it, juice dribbling down his chin. 

“You’ll like this one,” Theo murmurs, eyes tracing the page in his hands. “What fruit did the ancient Greeks throw to declare love, adoration, or as a proposal?”

Liam wrinkles his nose as he thinks and wipes at his face with the back of his hand, the peach juice is sticky. “Apple.”

Theo writes the word silently and then skims the page for another question. There’s an awkwardness that they’re both ignoring. It grows between the spaces of unsaid words and dropped gazes, wraps around their throats constricting their conversation to safe sentences. It’s driving Liam crazy, makes him want to scream, but silence is a virtue in a world such as this. Even if that silence is heavier than Liam can carry.

He licks his lips and crosses his arms over his chest, tries to hold the warmth of the flames close to his body. “What’s the next clue,” he asks as the wood crackles.

“What’s the name of the first, First Lady?” Theo asks tapping his pen against the page, it’s a slow rhythm like the beating of a tired heart.

_Thump, thump_

_Thump, thump._

“Martha,” Liam murmurs without having to think about it.

Theo looks up at him, their eyes meeting for the first time all day. He looks impressed with Liam, his green eyes glittering in the fires light. “Seriously, why do you know that?”

Liam stares right back, cataloging the different shades of green and flecks of gold. “It was my grandmother's name, so it was easy to remember after learning.”

“Oh,” Theo dips his head in understanding, breaking eye contact. Slowly, he writes out the name. “The same grandmother whose birthday was on Christmas Eve?”

“Yeah,” Liam says surprised that Theo has remembered. It’s been nearly two weeks since Liam told Theo that story.

Theo hums softly but doesn’t say anything else. Liam stares at the word Martha in the squares. It’s written neater than the other words. Clear and precise like he’s trying to honor her through wrinkled paper and bright blue ink.

Liam lifts his eyes, traces the lines of Theo’s face. He’s struck by how much Theo has changed since the first time they met. Not just in appearance, but in everything _._

 _At first, Liam had seen Theo as a potential pack mate and friend, someone who knew Liam’s alpha when he was only a child. Then Liam had seen him as the enemy. The corrupted chimera out only for himself, the guy who had almost had Liam kill Scott. The guy who had torn apart his friends. –_ The fires light dances across Theo’s skin. The golden light catching in the dark strands of Theo’s hair and making them glow softly— _Theo’s not like that anymore. He hasn’t been for a long time. Longer than Liam’s realized, and Liam doesn’t know what he sees Theo as anymore. A friend? A traveling companion? Neither of those descriptions seems to fit._

Liam licks his lips nervously, turns his head away to stare into the tiny flames, they dance in front of his eyes. His face feels entirely too warm, but he doesn’t turn away. “I’m sorry.”

The pen stills in Theo’s hand, so Liam continues. “For what happened, in the car... I shouldn’t have done that.”

He swallows thickly and listens as they both hold their breath. Their hearts beating too fast in their chests. It reminds him of when they were in the jeep, their hearts had been beating far too fast then as well.

Theo is the first to exhale.

“You don’t need to apologize,” Theo says. The pen moves again finishing the word. “You were just horny and confused, we’ve been on the road together for a long time… It was bound to happen.”

Liam turns his head back to Theo, his eyes tracing Theo’s figure, watching as the flames cast light and shadows across him. Liam thought he was getting better at reading the chimera, but right now, Liam has no idea what’s going on in Theo’s mind. He’s not lying though, Theo believes what he’s saying is true. And maybe it is. It had just been the two of them for a long time, maybe Liam is just horny and confused about things.

“Right,” Liam says slowly, nodding his head in agreement. The word tastes oddly like a lie on his tongue even as his heart taps out an honest beat. He clears his throat, shifting on the cold wooden floor and wraps his arms around himself. “You’re right.”

Theo stares at him, Liam can feel his eyes on the side of his face. “Liam…” Theo says slowly, trailing off. He clears his throat. “We should get some sleep.”

The house is all locked up, the building keeping out the storm and the O’s that mill about outside. He nods his head, sleep sounds like an amazing idea, exhaustion tugging at his limbs. He crawls into his sleeping bag and rolls onto his side, facing away from Theo and the fire.

He lays there for a long time before he finally closes his eyes and lets sleep take him away.

 

* * *

 

"Please tell me you're joking," Liam says, staring wide-eyed at Theo as they traipse down an empty road. 

"I told you this months ago, Liam," Theo says exasperatedly. He reaches out, fingers clamping down on Liam's sleeve. "Come on, let's go."

"I don't want to hike up a mountain in winter, Theo," Liam grumbles jerking his sleeve from Theo's grasp. "That's how people freeze to death." 

He watches in annoyance as Theo rolls his eyes. 

"We still have a few days until we even get there, maybe longer with the pace you insist on walking," Theo says, grabbing Liam's sleeve again and tugging him along behind him. Liam tries to fight him off, but his feet slid on the slick cement road. "We'll be fine." 

Liam glares daggers at the hills and mountains looming in the distance. "Sure we will," He bites out sarcastically.

"Come on, trust me," Theo says, slowing his pace ever so slightly so he's not dragging Liam after him. They’re side by side now, shoulder brushing together as they walk. 

Liam does trust Theo, completely, because Theo’s more than earned it.  What he doesn't trust are those sketchy ass snow covered mountains.

He sighs, dread filling him entirely. He hates the cold and the wet and all the mountains are going to do is put him higher up in the air, closer to the sky where that cold and wet is coming from.

"Okay," He says quietly, nodding his head. He’s not happy about the mountains, but he’ll trust Theo to guide them through it. 

He doesn't pull his sleeve away from Theo's grasp again.

* * *

 

Theo’s been tense since they set off this morning, a frown on his face like he’s thinking too hard. He’s been tense for the last two days if Liam’s being honest, the conversation getting more and more stilted. Liam worries at his bottom lip with his teeth, tearing open the skin, again and again, each time it heals. They haven’t spoken other than a few comments about the abysmal weather and if they’re going the correct direction.

“Are you okay,” Liam asks at long last as they begin an upward trek, there’s no longer any houses around them, it’s just miles and miles of trees and large hills, the earth inclining at a steady rate. When he doesn’t get an answer Liam speeds up ever so slightly, his muscles aching as he hurries up the mountainous hill so that they’re side by side. “Theo?”

Theo blinks and turns his head towards Liam. “What?”

“I asked if you were okay,” Liam says.

“I’m fine.”

Liam almost decides to let it go, but he’s worried. “You’re being weird.”

Theo frowns over at him, his pulse speeding up just a little. “I’m not.”

Narrowing his eyes at the chimera, Liam comes to a stop. “Liar,” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Did I do something to piss you off?” The again goes unsaid.

“What,” Theo says coming to a stop too and turning around to face Liam. “No.”

“Then why are you acting so weird today,” Liam implores stepping closer to him. “You’ve been quiet and tense all day.”

“I’m not,” Theo insists, his voice going hard. He’s glaring a little down at Liam. “Just drop it.”

Liam shakes his head, his fingers trembling. “I’m not going to drop it until you tell me what I did. Is this about…”

“No, Liam,” Theo says in exasperation, his cheeks flushing slightly at the reminder of what Liam did. “You didn’t do anything, okay, it’s fine.”

“Then why—”

“Fine,” Theo growls out loudly and shrugs off his backpack, dropping it into the mud and hunching down over it. “You nosy little shit, Dunbar.”

He jerks open the zipper of his bag and rummages through it, his movements too quick and angry. The rain pours down on them. Liam hopes it doesn’t soak the map in Theo’s backpack. Liam stands there watching and waiting, wondering what the hell Theo is doing. Theo pulls a dark gray plastic bag from his backpack, it crinkles beneath the grip of his hand, the rain splashing on it and giving of _Shh Shh_ sounds as he holds it out to Liam.

“Here,” Theo says with a huff and shakes the bag at him. “Open it.”

Liam stares down at the bag in apprehension but makes no move to take it. “What does this have to do with your attitude?”

“Liam,” Theo says like he’s losing all patience. “Take the bag.”

He reaches out and takes the bag cautiously. Logically, he knows that Theo wouldn’t give him something that would hurt him, at least, not seriously hurt him, but he’s irritated the Chimera and one can never be too careful with a frustrated Theo Raeken.

The bag isn’t heavy, but there’s obviously something inside of it. Liam sucks in a calming breath and pulls open the bag. He blinks in surprised confusion at what he finds inside. His gaze shoots up to Theo but Theo’s not looking at him anymore, he’s staring off to the side, the air around him tinged with embarrassment. Liam looks back down at the jar of peanut butter in his hands and tilts his head to the side.

“You don’t like peanut butter,” Liam says, it’s the first thing that pops into his confused brain. Is Theo angry at a jar of peanut butter? When did he even get the peanut butter? They haven’t hit a store is a while.

“No, but you do,” Theo says quietly, he clears his throat. “Merry Christmas, Littlewolf.”

Liam slowly lifts his gaze back up from the bag to Theo’s face. The chimera looks embarrassed, his eyes not meeting Liam’s, his cheeks dusted a light pink. Liam can’t tear his eyes away from the sight, his fingers curl around the gift in his hands as his heart kicks up a little faster in his chest.

 _Oh_ , Liam thinks as he finally puts a name to the feeling that’s been growing in his chest like vines stretching towards the sunlight. Theo was wrong when he said that Liam was just horny and confused. Liam maybe horny most of the time, but he’s not confused. Not anymore.

_He’s in love with Theo._

He doesn’t know when it happened, or how. He just knows that that’s what the feeling inside him is. The feeling that wants the best for Theo and worries about him. It’s different than the other times he’s been in love. Those loves had been like fire; fast and hot, but quick to burn out and leave Liam a pile of ashes. Loving Theo though, loving Theo is like the ocean; it’s deep and dangerous and Liam is terrified that he’s sinking instead of swimming.

 “I—I didn’t get you anything,” Liam stutters over his words, heart pounding in his chest.

Theo shrugs, his eyes dropping from Liam’s face to the place where his heart sits. He licks his lips and lifts his gaze back up to meet Liam’s. “I don’t celebrate Christmas anyway.”

Liam lets out a strange little noise as he counts up the days in his head. Today is Christmas Eve, his grandmother’s birthday. “It’s Christmas Eve, not Christmas.”

“I know,” Theo says as he zips up his bag and slides it back onto his shoulders. He brushes a strand of hair from his face and says softly. “It’s when you exchange gifts though, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Liam nods his head, pulling the plastic bag with the peanut butter close to his chest. Theo remembered. His mouth feels dry as he whispers. “Thank you.”

Theo nods his head without looking at Liam, he turns around. “Yeah, your welcome. Let’s go.”

Liam continues to stand there for a moment, watching as Theo walks on. Is this why Theo had been so tense lately? Because he didn’t know how to give Liam a present? Liam bites down on his bottom lip a smile spreading across his mouth. He wonders how long Theo has had the present hidden away in his bag. The dummy. 

“Hurry up or I’m leaving you here,” Theo calls out impatiently, Liam doesn't have to hear the skip in Theo's heart to know the chimera is lying. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Liam yells at him as he clutches at his present and runs after Theo. His shoes splashing in the water running down the mountain. “I’m coming.”

* * *

There’s finally a break in the rain, though the world around them smells like nothing but wet earth. He sucks in a deep breath and exhales slowly.

“What is it,” Theo asks as he comes to a halt next to Liam. Liam watches as he readjusts his backpack, tightening the loosening straps so that it settles correctly against his back. “Do you smell something?”

“It’s nothing,” Liam says softly, a tiny smile pulling at his lips.

Theo gives him a dubious look like he doesn’t believe Liam despite being able to hear the truth of it in Liam’s heartbeat. Liam laughs delightedly.

“No, really,” Liam tells him as they start walking again, the uphill battle straining Liam’s muscles, he’s gotten used to the burn of walking and running, but this is something entirely different.

“I don’t smell anything up here,” He explains sucking in another deep breath. “There’s no rotting smell or trash or Monroe. It’s all clean air.”

Theo nods his head in understanding, his long hair falling into his eyes. “We’re really high up now.”

Liam turns his head to the left and freezes mid-step. He hadn’t been paying attention at all.

“Oh,” He exhales, his eyes widening as he takes in the vast expanse of trees that span out before them like an ocean. A combination of pines and firs, all the branches hanging heavy with rainfall.

Liam’s disappointed in himself. He’s never once paused on this journey to take in the scenery or to just breathe and live in a solitary moment of peace. He’s traveled so many miles since the beginning of this and not once as he allowed himself the joy of living. He takes a step closer to the edge of the cliff, his eyes drinking in everything they can. The world looks so beautiful from where he’s standing, so untouched by disaster and death.

A hand wraps around his wrist, warm and solid. “That’s close enough,” Theo comments. “I don’t want to have to explain to your pack that I made it back and you didn’t because you rolled down the side of a mountain and died.”

Liam takes a step back next to Theo away from the edge, but Theo doesn’t release his wrist and Liam doesn’t comment on it. They just stand there, side by side, Theo’s fingers a warm brand against his skin where his sleeve has ridden up.

“What’s with that impressed look,” Theo asks after several long moments of standing there, his eyes burning into the side of Liam’s face.

Liam nods at the view. “It looks so peaceful from up here. I can see why people run away to the mountains when they need a break from the world.”

“Planning on becoming a mountain man, Liam,” Theo asks, voice laced with amusement, his thumb rubs along Liam’s vein in a slow comforting motion.

“Maybe,” Liam muses as he drinks in the sight. He doesn’t want to stop looking, doesn’t want to move from this spot, from this moment. “Colorado is nice, I could find a little shack and live here.”

“Have fun,” Theo snorts, turns on his heel and walks off, his fingers slipping away from Liam’s wrist.

Liam frowns turning his head to watch Theo walk away. “You wouldn’t keep me company,” He asks as he follows after Theo. “I thought we were friends.”

There’s a tiny pause and then Theo says. “We are, which is why you should support my decision to not live in a shack on the side of a mountain.”

“Fine, I support your decision,” Liam huffs. “I’ll live there by myself.”

Theo laughs as soon as the words are out of his mouth. Liam narrows his eyes at him.

“I could be a mountain man,” He tells Theo, slightly offended.

Theo glances over his shoulder, sees Liam’s scowl and grins. “You’re too little to be a mountain man, Liam,” Theo says with an amused twist of his lips before facing forward again. “You could be a mountain boy, maybe?”

“Fuck you,” Liam growls at him, stomping his feet as he tries to catch up to Theo.

Theo laughs, it’s a quiet laugh, but warm and rich with fondness. It’s a nice sound, one that makes Liam’s heart trip in his chest.

“What would you even do in the mountains all by yourself,” Theo inquires tipping his head back to look up at the sky as he walks. There’s a small break in the clouds, the warm rays of the sun slipping through and lighting up Theo’s face. It almost makes the chimera look ethereal. “You would go crazy on your own.”

“I wouldn’t,” Liam disagrees, holding his hand out to the rays of the sun and watching as the light dances over them. It feels warm even with the sharp bite of winter wind.

Liam hopes it stays like this, even though he knows that hope is futile, there are already large grey clouds looming in the distance, steadily making their way towards them. Theo snorts and drops his head back down to stare over at Liam. Liam drops his hands quickly to his sides and tries not to flush in embarrassment at being caught playing with the sunlight.

“You would,” Theo insists. “You’d probably start talking to the spiders on the walls.” Theo pauses a moment as if he’s thinking about it and then smiles. The pull of his lips entirely too knowing for Liam’s liking. “And knowing you, you would probably name it—”

“Okay, okay,” Liam cuts him off with a roll of his eyes. He knocks his shoulder into Theo’s, making the chimera stumble. “I get it. I’m not mountain man material.”

Theo knocks his shoulder right back into Liam’s just as lightning flashes through the sky, his words are almost drowned out by the rumble of thunder when he speaks. “Don’t pout Liam, it’s not a good look for you.”

* * *

Those ominous storm clouds that had been rolling in the distance are finally overhead, icy water falling in heavy sheets down on them. The earth keeps crumbling away beneath their feet as they trek their way higher and higher up the mountainside. The wind is stronger the further up they climb, smacking them roughly in the face and blowing off their hoods letting the rain soak into their skin. So far, Liam has a very poor opinion of Colorado again, the view earlier was beautiful, but he can live without it. He wants off this mountain and out of this storm, by the grumpy expression on Theo’s face to his left, he can tell Theo is thinking the same thing.

“We should find some place to wait this out,” Liam yells over the wind.

Theo turns to look at him, his hand held tight to his hood. “There’s nothing around us, Liam.”

He has a point, there are a few trees bundled closely together that might help keep the rain off of them just a bit, but other than that there’s nothing. Liam sighs and ducks his head down to keep walking, his face feels frozen. He’s sure that if he wasn’t a werewolf he would have probably lost a few parts of himself to frostbite by now.

There’s a weird rumble, the sound almost like thunder. He turns to look at Theo, both of them coming to a standstill as they listen to the strange noise. The ground beneath them begins to shake and Liam staggers backward away from Theo and loses his footing in the slick mud, falling onto his ass in a deep puddle. The water soaking into his clothes. He doesn’t care about that right now though.

“An earthquake,” Liam says in surprise as he meets Theo’s eyes, there’s nowhere for them to go if the ground decides to start opening up. “Does Colorado have earthquakes?”

Theo holds out his hand to keep his balance, his brows furrowed in confusion. “I don’t kno—”

The earth beneath Theo’s feet gives way and suddenly the chimera is gone. Liam’s heart stops in his chest, his mouth opening up on a scream of Theo’s name, his voice just barely audible over the loud booming of thunder and wind. The ground stops shaking, and Liam pushes himself up to his feet. He rushes to the space where Theo had been standing, the mud slipping beneath his feet. He clutches at a nearby try and peeks down over the side of the cliff.

“Theo?” He yells down. His eyes peering frantically through the rain. “Theo?”

 _Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead._ He thinks over and over as he blinks away the water from his eyes. “Damn it, Theo!”

“Fuck,” Theo yells and Liam spots him, the chimera is covered in mud and pine leaves. Liam lets out a tiny laugh of relief. _He’s not dead._

“Are you okay,” Liam calls out, his eyes darting over the chimera’s form, seeking out any injury or splash of red.

Theo looks like he’s trying to blend in with his surroundings as he staggers up to his feet.

Theo wipes angrily at his face, mud smearing across his cheeks. “Yeah, I’m great,” He bites out in irritation.

Liam leans against the tree he has his arm wrapped around and laughs. “You look a little down, Theo.”

Theo pauses, his hands stilling on his face. He looks up at Liam and glares daggers at him.

“Haha. Very funny, Liam,” Theo grunts, dropping his hands from his face and trudging through the mud towards the hill he had slid down.

“Didn’t you say something about not falling down the side of the mountain,” Liam says as he watches Theo struggle to climb. He’s probably enjoying this a little too much, but it’s not every day he gets to see Theo looking so undignified.

“Shut up, Dunbar,” Theo says looking muddy and miserable at the bottom of the hill. Liam bites down on his bottom lip to keep himself from laughing.

The hill is far too steep and slippery from the continuous downpour of rain for Theo to climb. A loud growl reaches Liam’s ears as Theo loses his footing and falls back onto his ass in the mud.

“You’re not going to make it back up this way, Dummy.”

“Yeah, I know,” Theo says pushing himself up to his feet. He scowls at the hill before lifting his gaze higher and blinking at Liam through the rain, the water clinging to his eyelashes and clumping them together. “I’ll have to find another way up.”

Theo looks around and nods to his left. “Don’t move from that spot Liam, the last thing I need is for you to get lost on a mountain.”

It’s more a hill than a mountain, but Liam doesn’t say that.

“Yes, sir,” Liam says with a mock salute, accidentally knocking back the hood of his coat, water seeps into his hair and rolls down the back of his neck like ice.

Theo flips him off and disappears through the trees, feet sticking deep in the mud as he goes. Liam tugs back up his hood and wipes at his face, but it does little to help with how wet his hands are. He carefully moves back from the edge, not wanting to crash down the way Theo had. He trudges away from the cliff towards a cluster of pine trees, their thick clump of needles blocking out some of the rain and giving him a semblance of a shelter to wait for Theo under.

Leaning back against the thin trunk of one of the trees he sucks in a deep breath, the sharp scent of pine and wet earth fills his senses. It’s a nice smell. He likes it much better than the air that blows through the trees down below. He exhales, his eyes falling closed as he waits, his body sagging down. He’s exhausted from marching uphill all day long, his body running on too little food and sleep. The mud has done little to help, the substance sucking away what little energy he starts each day with. He can’t wait for this winter storm to pass and for the sky to stop pouring down on them every single day. The zombie apocalypse is enough. He doesn’t need a great flood to happen as well.

Claws tapping against thighs, he stands there, listening to the faint squelching of feet in the mud drawing nearer. He grins to himself. Theo must have found a way up after all. He thought for sure he was going to be left waiting all day. He lets his eyes fall open and twists himself around to the other side of the tree trunk, fully intending to mock Theo some more.

“About tim—” his words come to a grinding halt.

Standing in front of him isn’t Theo. Liam takes a shocked step backward, his body colliding with the tree. He hadn’t smelt her at all.

“Well, well, this is a surprise,” Monroe says, a gun gripped tightly in her hand and aimed right at Liam. She’s thinner than the last time he saw her, more sharp and callous looking. Her outer appearance finally matching who she is inside. “ _Liam Dunbar.”_

She glances around them eyes narrowed into suspicious slits. “I’ve been tracking you and your companion,” She says turning back to him. “Who are you with? Is it Scott?”

Liam swallows past the bile rising in the back of his throat, his heart beating quickly in his chest. “I’m on my own. There’s—"

She cuts him off, lips twisting into a snarl.

“The innocent men you attacked in the woods weeks ago found me and my group.” She spits out. “They told me about two monsters with fangs and glowing eyes attacking them.

Her eyes go hard as her voice takes on a vicious tone. “I knew it had to be werewolves, so we started to track you,” She shakes her head, fingers tightening on her gun. “I never thought it would be someone from Scott McCall’s pack. How lucky.”

“Innocent,” Liam barks out incredulously, taking a step towards her. “Those men weren’t innocent. They attacked me, they were going to r—”

He cuts himself off, anger rising in him at the memory. He glances at the tree line to his left. He can barely make out the sound of heartbeats now, a lot of them. His fingers curl into fists at his sides. He’s surrounded by Monroe and her people. He hopes Theo doesn’t find a way back up the mountainside anytime soon. He has the chance to stay safe and alive as long as Monroe doesn’t know where he is.

“That’s not their story,” Monroe says. “And, I’m a little more inclined to believe people over monsters.

“People can be monsters too,” Liam says staring straight into her dark eyes. “Sometimes, they can be worse.”

She seethes. “Nothing is worse than you and your friends.”

“Oh,” Liam taunts. “I beg to differ.”

Her face twists and a loud shot rings out through the air like a clap of thunder. Pain rips through Liam’s left thigh as a bullet makes itself at home in his flesh.

“Shit,” He hisses through clenched teeth, his hands clambering to cover the oozing wound. It stings, like fire in his veins. Wolfsbane.

 _Damn it, Liam._ The voice in his head says sounding suspiciously like Theo. _Don’t taunt the armed hunter, you dumbass._

Still, the urge to call her a psycho bitch rests heavily behind his teeth. He clenches his jaw harder to keep the words inside.

“What, nothing to say,” Monroe asks, voice falsely saccharine. “No, _please stop?_ No, _you don’t have to?”_

A growl escapes from Liam, hurt and raw with anger. He’s not going to beg this woman for his life. It would be pointless, you can’t reason with a psychopath.

Monroe smiles, the pull of her lips dripping with satisfaction. Her dark eyes glitter excitedly.

“There it is, show me your real face, Liam.” She lifts her gun higher, pointing it right at his head. “Show me the monster beneath the mask.”

 Several loud shots ring out, pain tearing through him. He has only a moment to think _What a bitch,_ before his world goes black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I reference [DESOLATE](https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/31413645?show_comments=true) in this chapter? Yes. Yes I did, because it's amazing.   
> <3 Thank you Sammy for writing such an amazing story and letting me put a cameo of it in VS.


	13. Alone Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing much happens in this chapter, it’s mostly just filling in what’s up with the crazy bitch.

The ground is cold and hard beneath Liam. There’s no cushioning from his sleeping bag, no warmth from a burning fire. There’s just a chill that seeps into his bones. Liam groans, the sound coming from deep in his throat as he tries to shift. His body feels strange, his muscles aching even as he lies still. The feeling reminds him of the time he caught the flu when he was fourteen. It’s that type of deep-seated ache, the one that makes you want to curl up in a bed and cry until you finally feel better.

Slowly, he pries his eyes open. The world around him isn’t very bright, but it still stings his eyes, he blinks rapidly, trying to get used to the light. The sky is nothing but a grey smudge above him. Liam lifts a heavy hand, the motion taking every ounce of his strength as he rubs groggily at his face. Something coils in his stomach like dread or a warning, but he doesn’t understand the feeling. His mind is moving too slowly, as though it has to swim through a river of molasses just to come up with his every thought.

“Theo,” he tries to say but it’s nothing more than an unintelligible croak, his throat parched.

The sky comes into sharper focus as Liam squints above him, it’s slate gray and unchanging.

 _That’s not the sky,_ Liam realizes. _It’s a ceiling._

He tips his head to the side and regrets it instantly when his brain feels like it’s pounding against the inside of his skull. Liam winces, his eyes taking in the smooth stone wall to his right. He inhales deeply and shifts again, twisting his head to the left.

Bars. They’re thick and iron, the metal lines of them going from the floor all the way up to the ceiling like a cage. His muddled mind tries to make sense of what he’s seeing, but it’s hard. He’s in a cage, but why? It’s been years since he’s been locked away like this, anger simmers just beneath his skin. Brett had locked him in a cage at the old zoo, but Brett isn’t here. Brett's home, miles, and miles away from where Liam is now. He sucks in a panicked breath, his heart starting to kick up in speed.

 _Where exactly is he? How long has he been here?_ More importantly though _, where is Theo?_

Liam grunts in pain as he rolls onto his stomach, his body viciously protesting the movement. His hands tremble as he pushes himself up onto his knees.

“Do you like it,” A familiar voice asks, and Liam stiffens up, his bones locking into place. “It’s my own special cocktail.”

Liam lifts his head and glares through the bars. His entire body shakes with the effort to stare his kidnapper down. Monroe is lounging in a metal chair, her dark eyes watching him coldly.

“Fuck… you,” Liam gasps out, it feels like his blood is boiling beneath his skin.

Monroe ignores him. “It’s made from kanima venom, the paralytic works wonders when applied just right with wolfsbane.”

So that’s why he feels like this; like he has no control over his limbs. He bites back a growl of frustration, tries to will his body to move correctly, but it won’t.

“How does it feel,” she asks, and Liam wants to rip her face off with his claws. He’s never hated someone so much in his life until he met this woman.

“Just peachy,” Liam growls at her. He won’t give her the satisfaction of knowing how much pain he’s in.

She tuts at him unhappily and he ignores her, instead he focuses on the smells around him, the sounds. Everything is a little muddled and dull from the poison in his body, but he can smell and rear enough to know that whatever is going on in the other rooms he doesn’t like it. There’s blood in the air, thick and fresh, some of it is his own, but most of it is coming from the door to the left. It doesn’t smell human, but it doesn’t smell like an O either. It’s coming from another were-creature.

His mind is less foggy than when he first opened his eyes, his vision still a little blurry, but he can see well enough to realize that he’s not actually in a cage. It’s a cell, like the type in the police station, only it’s small, too small to be an actual precinct. A ranger’s station, maybe?

Monroe leans forward in her chair, the playfulness is gone from her face. “Tell me who you were traveling with,” She says seriously.

 “No one,” Liam spits out just as him limbs send him crashing back to the ground, his cheek scraping against the concrete floor. He feels his skin tear, the metallic scent of blood filling his nose. He grits his teeth and holds in the whimper that so desperately wants to be set free. Everything hurts so much.

 “You’re lying,” She tuts shaking her head down at him. “I know that there were two of you, the men that came into my camp spoke of two monsters with glowing eyes and fangs, not one.”

“I’m on my own,” He says. He won’t tell her about Theo, no matter what. He’s tired of the chimera protecting him and saving him, it’s Liam’s turn to keep him safe from trouble.

“Tell me and I’ll make all of this as easy as possible for you,” Monroe says lightly. “Was it Scott? No? How about Malia?”

He laughs, his breath stirring the dust on the floor. “Do you honestly expect me to believe that? Just kill me and get it over with. I’m not telling you anything.”

There’s a loud screech, metal against cement, as Monroe stands up, her chair tipping over and clattering to the ground behind her.

“I don’t want to kill you, Liam. I want to use you,” Monroe says as she steps closer to the bars and drops down to her haunches to look Liam in the eye. “If there’s one thing I learned from Gerard it’s that you don’t waste an opportunity.”

“Use me,” Liam repeats, and his stomach rolls with fear. “Use me for what?”

Monroe’s so thin now, practically a skeleton. It’s frightening when she smiles, all thin lips and yellowing teeth. “To save the world,” She tells him.

“Funny,” Liam mutters. “You seemed dead set on destroying it, before.”

“Not the world,” She snaps at him. “Just monsters like you.”

“The only monster I see in this room is you,” Liam tells her.

Monroe stands up and steps away from the bars. Her voice is cruel as she stares down at him. “That’s because it’s not a room full of mirrors, Mr. Dunbar.”

She strides from the room, heels clicking against the floor like gunshots.

Fitting, Liam thinks. There’s destruction in her every step.

He rolls onto his back as soon as the door slams behind Monroe and lets out a small whine of pain. The bullets are still lodged into his skin. He can feel them, slowly trying to push their way out of his body. With a shaky, uncoordinated hand he slowly grips the hem of his shirt and drags it up. His fingers feel along the smooth parts of his abdomen until they come across the first hole. He grits his teeth and digs inside for the small piece of metal and pulls it free.

A gasp breaks through his lips as he drops the bullet onto the ground, it clinks and rolls away leaving a bloody trail. He wants to cry, wishes someone else was here to hold his hand but he’s alone. He moves his bloody fingers back along his skin and finds the next hole to dig out the bullet.

Liam extracts several more before his arm starts to grow heavy, the black spots in the corners of his vision expanding, swallowing up the light in his eyes. He passes out, cold and alone on the floor of a cell.

* * *

 

When he wakes up again it’s to someone being thrown into the cell next to his own. His disoriented mind supplies Theo’s face and his heart kicks up in a panic as he tries to push himself upright. The scent isn’t right though, it’s wild in a way that reminds him of Hayden before Scott had bitten her. The smell of feline hangs heavily in the air, mingling with the metallic tang of blood and pain. Liam grunts out as his hands shake, nails biting into the cement as he struggles into a seated position.

There are four other people in the room, one of them is a prisoner like Liam. It’s a woman, her face hidden by a wave of dark curls as she lays sprawled out on the floor of the cell next to his own. Liam can see the stark white bandage wrapped around her neck, a dark red spot blooming on the cloth. He has to tear his eyes away from her, his angry gaze settling first on the two men near his cell, he glowers at them before moving his eyes to Monroe.

She’s seated in the same chair as before but now there’s an almost pleased look on her face.

“Theo Raeken,” she says and waves a familiar book through the air. It carries the scent of both Liam and Theo, of dirt and blood and something that Liam has come to associate with home. “That’s who you’re traveling with.”

He growls low in his throat, his eyes narrowing on the book in her hands as she brings it down and flips through it.

She hums delightedly. “My, my, you two certainly used this book a lot.”

Liam knows what she’s seeing as she flips through the yellowing pages. Yes, all of the puzzles are filled in with their differing scrawl, but there are also words written in the margins of the pages, games of tic-tac-toe and hangman played, insults scribbled out, stick figures holding maps drawn.

It’s _their_ puzzle book, the first one.

Monroe doesn’t deserve to touch it.

“Oh, is this important to you,” she asks curiously, her eyes meeting his. There’s something cruel in her gaze, something monstrous.

“Roger,” she calls out addressing one of the men. “Hand me your lighter.”

Liam’s stomach clenches with dread.

_No. Please._

Roger moves close to her a silver zippo in his outstretched hand.

“Don’t,” Liam says before he can stop himself. He sounds small and weak as he stares in wide eyes horror at her. “Please.” 

Monroe says nothing, doesn’t even acknowledge that he spoke. He watches as she takes the lighter from Roger, her thumb flicking it. A flame erupts from the top of it, small and bright, but intimidating as she holds it near the book. The corner of the pages begins to roll up from the heat.

“You should have told me what I wanted to know, Liam,” Monroe tells him coldly before holding the flame up to the puzzle book, the end smokes, grey swirls rising up into the air before it catches fire, the flames spreading up the cover. It smells like chemicals in the air.

She smiles at Liam and drops the book onto the concrete floor before walking away, Roger and the other man follow quietly along behind her. The door clicks closed behind them. His fingers grip tightly to the freezing metal bars, his eyes hot with tears as he watches the puzzle book turn to ash.

He’s going to kill her, he vows as the flames rise high and then die down before his eyes. He’s going to rip her throat out with his bare hands. He doesn’t care about Scott’s rules. Scott’s not out here, Scott’s not locked in this cage and worrying about whether or not Monroe will find his friend.

Liam growls angrily, the sound echoing off the walls. He needs to get out of here somehow, needs to know what’s going on and why Monroe hasn’t just killed him yet. He glances over at the other cell. If anyone will have answers it’ll be the person that’s stuck in the same place as himself.

 Liam struggles to his knees and forces himself to crawl towards the bars separating their jail cells. He leans heavily against the cold metal, his breathing labored, the short distance exhausting him.

“Hey,” Liam says quietly, his eyes darting nervously towards the door. He can faintly hear heartbeats out there, several of them. He swallows thickly, his mouth dry. He whispers. “Hello?”

He tries to rouse the woman, but she doesn’t move, her body lays limp on the floor. He would almost think she was dead, if not for the sluggish thump of her heartbeat and the heavy way she breathes.

“What did they do to you,” he whispers at her not expecting a response.

Liam shifts around, pressing his back against the bars and tipping his head up. He has so many questions, ones he knows Monroe will never answer no matter if she is hell-bent on playing this cat-mouse game. So, this woman is his only hope for clarity. He just prays she wakes up.

Liam crosses his arms over his chest, the cold air curls around his body. His coat is missing, no doubt stole away by Monroe, so he feels the chill deep in his bones. Huddling in on himself he thinks about the mountain and Theo. He hopes that the chimera is somewhere safe where Monroe can’t find him.

She’d looked so thrilled by the prospect of the chimera being out there, he had seen it in the curves of her face, the manic look in her eyes.

Turning his head to the side he sees the smoldering pile of ashes and his heart clenches.

Does Theo think he’s dead? There had to have been a lot of blood on the ground, even with the rain pouring down, the scent of it would have been heavy beneath the trees. Maybe Theo thinks he’s an O just wandering around the mountainside looking for a meal to sink his teeth in.

 _Would he try to find me_ , Liam asks himself. _Would he try to put me out of my miserable existence if that were the case? What about Monroe? Would he try to come after her to avenge my death?_

Liam snorts out a bitter laugh.

That would be stupid. It’s just Theo out there on the side of the mountain. He wouldn’t be able to win against an army of hunters on his own. So, he wouldn’t even try, right? Theo’s too smart to do something so foolish. Theo doesn’t need Liam the way that Liam needs Theo. Coming after Liam is a stupid idea, suicidal even. 

And, yet, Liam knows in his bones that he’s wrong.

Of course, Theo will come after him.

He always does.

* * *

 

It feels like years have come and gone as he sits there, the cell around him growing darker and darker as dusk begins to settle in. The temperature drops, and he can feel it clearly, shivers wracking his body. He wishes he had a fire to keep him warm, to chase away the shadows that coil around him. He can’t control the animalistic side of himself, can’t make his eyes work enough to see.

He and Theo should have stayed in Manhattan with the Rover pack. They would have been safe there, warm and protected from psycho hunters and O’s. Alpha Quiana had agreed to be his future ally because he left because he needed to get back to his pack but what good does that do him if he dies here. So many things would have been different if that had both chosen to stay. Theo would never have been bitten and Liam would never have jerked off in a car with him.

Liam probably wouldn’t have fallen in love with Theo either. He wouldn’t have ever tried to get to really know Theo the way he had on this journey. They wouldn’t have done crossword puzzles or talked about their families, they wouldn’t have inside jokes or come up with the ridiculous name for zombies. His chest aches with worry and nostalgia.

He shouldn’t have said it was nothing when they talked about what happened in the car. He shouldn’t have agreed that he was just horny and confused. He knows what he wants, who he wants. He wants to be back there at the tree, laughing about Theo’s trip down the cliff, he wants to see Theo’s petulant expression and pursed mouth. He wants to pull Theo close, hold him, kiss him, tell him just how much he really means to Liam, but now he might never get that chance.

“Damn it,” he growls to the shadows, his eyes burning with held back tears. He’s angry with himself and with Monroe. He punches the cement beneath him, the cold concrete splits his knuckles open. He curses again, anger and pain all mixed together as the chilly air breathes over his wound. He wants to fight something and he wants to cry but he doesn’t have the energy for either. 

There’s a low moan from behind him and Liam jerks around at the noise to peer through the darkness into the other cell.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asks quietly trying not to draw the attention of any hunters roaming the hallway.

“Who’s there?” the voice says back, slow and disoriented.

“My names Liam,” he tells her and watches as she struggles to push herself upright.

“Liam,” she repeats testing out the name, she rolls onto her back and coughs, it’s a deep rattling cough; like winter has settled into her lungs, like her body is starting to give up on her. Liam doesn’t like the sound. 

“What did they do to you,” he whispers, pressing himself closer to the bars as though it’ll help him see the damage inflicted on her. It doesn’t. The only thing he sees is the bandage on her neck. 

Her laugh is mirthless and choked. “What didn’t they do?”

There’s a long pause, Liam listens to the heavy way she breathes and dries not to compare it to the sound O’s make, but it’s difficult.

“What are you,” she asks, and for a moment Liam is confused. There’s a frustrated hissing sound. “I’m too weak to use my senses, I can’t smell what you are, I can’t smell anything.” 

“Is... is it important,” Liam asks slowly. 

“To me, no,” she bites out. “But to them, to them it’s eveything.” 

“I’m a werewolf,” he tells her. He pauses for a moment and then asks. “You’re a were-cat, right?”

“Yes,” she whispers, and she sounds exhausted; like she’s barely hanging on.

Liam bites down on his lip, then hesitantly he slides his hand through the bars until he touches her arm. Pain bursts to life beneath his skin, sharp and sudden. He almost jerks his hand away, but he holds on, seeping away the hurt from her body as best he can. His teeth gritting together.

“Don’t,” she says, but her voice sounds softer, less tight. “You should save your strength. They’re almost finished with me and then it’ll be your turn, Liam.”

He pulls his hand away. “What does that mean,” he asks. “What are they doing?”

“They’re trying to find a cure,” she mumbles, then laughs and it’s not a kind sound. “Or make a vaccine for immunity against the zombies.”

It sounds like the plot of a bad science fiction film, Liam almost wants to laugh out loud, but he holds it in. As ridiculous as it sounds, it is what’s happening now, it’s what he’s living through, or trying to at least.

“How,” Liam asks curiosity burning through him. His voice is a little bitter and haughty when he mutters. “She’s a high school guidance counselor, what does she know about making vaccines.”

“By using us, our blood, our marrow, whatever she thinks will help her survive,” The woman growls out. “She has a doctor working for her.”

The woman rolls onto her side to look at him. “You’re young,” She murmurs like the knowledge of it makes her sad. “Were you alone out there? Surely, you must have a pack?”

Liam hesitates for only a moment before he shakes his head. “No, I… I have a friend out there,” he tells her. “His names Theo, we were on our way home back to California when Monroe caught me.”

“I’m sorry,” she says sincerely. “Your friend, he must be very worried about you.”

Liam’s fingers curl into fists at his sides, his heart clenching in his chest. Clearing his throat he turns the conversation towards her. “What about you, were you on your own?”

There’s a heavy silence, pain, not the physical kind but the kind that lives deep in your soul permeates the room around them. “No,” she whispers, voice shaking. “No, I wasn’t alone…My daughters were with me. I have three of them, two are like me, but the youngest, she’s human.”

“I told them to run while I distracted the hunters,” She tells Liam. “Now, they’re out there somewhere on their own. My youngest, she’s 15 years old…”

There’s a choking sound as though the woman is fighting back tears. “I know I won’t see them again, no matter how much I fight, they have taken too much of me.”

Liam wishes he knew what to say to offer some form of comfort to this woman, but his mind is blank. The door on the left opens and two men stomp inside, one carrying a flashlight, the other a gun. They’re not the same men as before.

“The doctor will see you now,” the one holding the gun says while the other pulls open the cell door. Fear fills the room as the man grabs the woman and drags her out.

She struggles in their hold and Liam closes his eyes, his body shaking. He wants to help her, but he can barely move, he reaches for that anger, that fear, but it feels too far away. He squeezes his eyes closed and doesn’t open them until the three of them are long gone.

He feels useless.

* * *

 

It’s nearly an hour later when he hears it; a single shot ringing through the air loud and telling. A kill shot, straight to the head.

He didn’t even know the woman’s name.

* * *

 

Liam doesn’t know how much time has passed, it seems to move so slowly here; locked away all alone. Whereas time appeared to move faster with Theo, the days cascading by the two of them. Liam frowns, the sun is up now, the winter light streaming in through the small grimy windows opposite his jail cell. He can only make out the expanse of grey sky and the dark lines of trees. It tells him nothing about where he is.

There’s a stomping of feet from the hallway, the sound of it growing louder the closer it gets to the door. It opens up revealing Roger and his ugly friend. Roger jangles a set of keys obnoxiously in his hand like he’s trying to taunt a small child or a pet.

“Looks like it’s your turn to see the vet, mutt,” Roger snipes.

Liam bares his teeth at the man, blunt and human, too tired and in pain to even think about shifting. Roger doesn’t even hesitate before kicking Liam in the face, the heel of his boot busting open Liam’s lip. Blood bursts into Liam’s mouth, hot and metallic. He coughs, hacking the blood from his mouth onto the floor right next to Roger’s foot.

“That all you got?” Liam taunts. He may not be able to fight physically, but he’s not just going to sit here and take it without throwing out some insults.

Large hands grab at him roughly, jerking him to his feet and dragging him towards the door. He tries to fight against them, but it’s a futile effort. He’s tugged down a shadowy hallway and into another room, this one brightly lit. He blinks rapidly, the light burning his eyes.

It’s a small room, lit by lamps and candles, wax dripping onto the floor and staining the tiles. It almost reminds Liam of the nurse’s office from his high school, except its ten times more creepy and gives off a distinct serial killer vibe with the rows of medicine and metal tools laid scattered across the countertops. Liam takes it all in and grits his teeth.

There’s a gurney in the middle of the room, thick straps dangling from the metal bars of it. The salty scent of tears and blood saturate the room, the smell of it makes Liam’s stomach roll with nausea and disgust.

This might be how he dies.

“Strap him down,” Monroe orders. “And, make sure it’s tight.”

Roger and his friend don’t respond, they just move into action dragging Liam to the middle of the room and throwing him down hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. He gasps as their hands press him down onto the table and pull up the sleeves of his sweater to wrap the leather straps around his bare wrists. He hisses out in pain at the first touch of leather to his skin. It burns, like fire on his flesh. The material is laden with finely ground wolfsbane.

Breathing through his nose, Liam forces himself to ignore the sting as the men move down the gurney. They push up the legs of his jeans, so they can strap down his ankles. Monroe watches them critically from the corner of the room, her eyes narrowed at their hands.

“What species is he,” a man asks as he steps into the room holding a clipboard.

The newcomer must be the doctor. He’s thin and pale, like a skeleton. His lab coat is dingy and stained with dried blood and grime. He looks like something from a nightmare as he presses a pen to the clipboard and waits for an answer.

Monroe leans against one of the counters, arms crossing over her chest. “Werewolf. Age 18. Bitten not born."

The doctor looks up, his gaze flitting over Liam before looking at Monroe. He stares at her for only a moment before looking back down at his clipboard and writing. “You know a lot about our new patient.”

“Yes,” Monroe says tightly. “We have a bit of a history.”

“Yeah,” Liam quips from where he’s strapped onto the gurney. He lifts his head as best he can so that Monroe can see him smirking at her. “It’s how I know she’s a raging bitch and a sore loser.”

Monroe’s dark gaze cuts over to him, her mouth going thin with anger.

Liam feels victorious for all of five seconds before a fist connects with his cheek. He coughs, turns his head to the side and spits out a mouthful of blood for the second time.

“Thanks, Roger,” Liam says with a nod at the man, his mouth spreading into a bloody grin. “Really, you’re a treat to be around.”

Roger glowers down at him, his meaty hand raising high to hit Liam again.

“Leave,” Monroe says authoritatively and steps towards Liam. “Now.”

Roger freezes, drops his hand to his side and steps away from the gurney like a good little lap dog. Liam bets Roger has a hard-on for Monroe. He wrinkles his nose in disgust at the thought and sneers at the men as they retreat from the room leaving only Liam, Monroe, and Doctor Skeleton.

Monroe walks slowly around the gurney, pausing minutely to tug at the straps checking their tightness. When she seems satisfied she moves towards Liam’s head. Her fingers trail through his hair, pushing it away from his face and sending chills down Liam’s spine.

He snarls up at her as she digs her nails into his skin.

“Be a good dog and stay,” Monroe tells him patronizingly before stepping away from the table, her dark eyes gleaming with excitement.

“He’s the beta of a true alpha,” she tells the doctor conversationally like Liam isn’t even in the room. “His blood might be more potent than the others we’ve used.”

“We will see,” The doctor says and steps closer to the gurney, a large needle in his hand. He doesn’t meet Liam’s eyes as he sidles up to the gurney, his cold fingers feeling along the vein in Liam’s neck. “This may hurt, I suggest you try not to flex, it’ll only make it worse.”

The needle pierces his skin like butter, sliding into his vein with ease. It feels like glass shards being rubbed into an open wound. Liam tries to bite back a whimper, his teeth sinking deep into the side of his cheek.

“There we go,” The doctor says as he tapes the needle in place.

He screws a long tube into the end of the needle sticking in Liam’s neck and fiddles with it. A line of dark red liquid travels through the clear tube and into an empty blood bag next to the gurney. Liam watches it, he’s terrified, but not for himself. Instead, he can only think of Theo. He hopes the chimera never finds him or Monroe. The chimera has been subjected to enough hellish experiments in his life. Liam doesn’t want Theo to have to go through this too.

“Don’t look so angry, Liam,” Monroe says as she heads for the door. She opens it and glances over her shoulder. “You’re finally going to be useful to the world.” 

Liam is definitely going to kill her. 

 


	14. Time doesn't believe in being fair

_You’re finally going to be useful to the world._

The sentence plays over and over in Liam’s mind, each syllable making him more and more angry. Useful… as if that’s the only reason a person should be allowed to live in this world.

“What a sour face,” a voice says from his left in the quiet left behind by Monroe and her goonish sidekick. “You should be happy Mr. Dunbar, you’re helping to save the human race.”

Liam’s lips curl into a sneer, he can’t see the doctor from where he’s laying, but the oily sound of his voice makes Liam want to growl. There are a plethora of curses and biting remarks waiting just on the tip of Liam’s tongue, but he holds them tight, saving them all up for when he sees Monroe again.

“Silence it is then,” the doctor says quietly, “This will be a long and slow process.”

“Monroe was never a fan of a quick death,” the words leave Liam’s mouth before he can swallow them down, spite tinging around the edges of them. “She likes to make people really feel it.”

There’s a grating sound, like a chair against concrete, and then the doctor's sallow face is in Liam’s line of sight. His eyes are sunk deep into his too pale face, red marring the skin beneath them like he hasn’t slept in years. Liam hopes he hasn’t, he hopes regret keeps the man awake late at night. Hopes it haunts him until his dying breath. The thought makes Liam feel vicious and petty, but at this point, he’s past caring.

“We are not killing you just to kill you,” the doctor tells him gravely. “We are experimenting in the hopes of giving the future generations a chance at survival.”

“Call it whatever you want, but killing is still killing, no matter the cause,” Liam bites out and closes his eyes. He doesn’t want to look at this shadow of a human before him. He’d rather stare at the dark space beneath his eyelids and wait for death to claim him like it has done countless others before him.

He can feel the doctor hovering just beside him silently, can feel the ghost of eyes on his skin. It makes him itch, but he doesn’t move, doesn’t acknowledge, and eventually, the presence of the doctor moves away. That same chair scraping noise rings loudly through the air and then there is nothing save for the steady dripping of Liam’s blood into the bag, and two tired hearts beating.

Liam must have passed out, or fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion because the next thing he’s aware of is someone pushing a metal cup through the bars of his cell. He groans, he’s not been here very long but he’s already tired of looking at the steel bars, tired of glimpsing freedom just beyond them.

There’s a small noise, like a short gasp of surprise and then the quick tap of feet against stone like someone backing away. Liam blinks blurry eyes, the bars come into sharper focus, he frowns and then focuses beyond them, eyes zeroing in on the moving figure in the middle of the room.

There’s a girl standing there, greasy blonde hair pulled up into a high bun and tied off with a scrap of material. She’s just a young thing, no older than fifteen or sixteen, a gun strapped to her belt loop, a knife shoved into her winter boot. Liam wonders if she uses them as confidently as Gabe had, or if her hands are shaky the way Nolan’s had been so long ago. He stares at her for a long time, not saying anything, just watching as she shifts nervously from foot to foot, her dark eyes glaring back at him.

“What?” She bites out finally, and her voice is simultaneously too soft and too loud. She’s overcompensating, and all Liam can think is she’s young, too young to be involved in a war she probably knows nothing about, a war that runs deeper than just the living and the dead.

“Hi,” Liam says and knows that if Theo were here, he would roll his eyes. Who says _Hi_ to one of their captors as though they’re greeting an old friend?

The girl’s hard expression falters, confusion and surprise lighting up her deep brown eyes. It’s like no one has ever said hello to her before, or at least hasn’t done so in a very long time. She takes a half step back.

“Hi?” she mimics, tone lilting up turning the greeting into a sharply edged question.

The girl waits, body held still, expression morphing back into one of hostility and Liam wants to laugh. He can remember being that age, even though it feels like eons have passed since then. He remembers, clearly, being swept away in a world that was foreign to him and just at the cusp of exciting. He wonders how she got mixed up in it, mixed up with someone like Monroe. He sighs, long and low, it turns into a cough and then peters off into a quiet, hysterical laugh. It’s just like Monroe to have children as foot soldiers to do her bidding.

“I’m Liam,” he says after a long moment, voice rasping over the words breathily. His throat is so, so dry, but his limbs seem like anchors and he can’t find the strength in himself to scoot closer to the cup of water waiting for him at the edge of his cell. He tips his head to the side, cheek pressed to the cold ground and watches the muscles in her jaw clench and unclench.

“So?” She grunts, fingers hovering over the handle of her gun like she honestly thinks he’s capable of getting out of the cage he’s in and coming after her.

He doesn’t think she’s _actually_ allowed to shoot or stab him, he’s supposedly pretty important until they’ve used all of him up for their shoddy experiments. And, he doesn’t think a new gun wound would be very productive to their cause. He keeps the thought to himself though, just in case.

“So,” he says slowly, catching her eyes with his own and trying to appear as friendly as he can when there are bullet holes in his sweater and dried blood staining his skin. “Who are you?”

“That’s none of your business,” she tells him, and Liam would like her if she didn’t have a small hand in keeping him here.  Her lips thin out into a look of irritation and then she turns and leaves the room.

_Well, so much for appealing to your kidnappers,_ he thinks wryly before rolling over onto his stomach. Ignoring the aches that live in his bones, he pushes up to his knees and slowly crawls across the floor, skin scraping against the rough concrete until finally, his fingers wrap around the small metal cup. He brings it shakily up to his lips and drinks every last drop.

 

* * *

 

Night comes with Liam in a daze, the room turning into a cage of shadows. Soft moonlight spills in through the tiny windows from his left. Liam’s eyes are dry and with each blink they sting, he wants to close them, to sleep, but he can’t. He’s too scared of someone coming while he’s vulnerable and taking him back to that room, of the doctor siphoning away his blood until he goes into shock and dies. So, he stays awake, watches as the moonlight shifts along the floor like a slowly slithering snake until the moon is too high in the sky for its light to reach him anymore. Footsteps go past the door like clockwork, but they never stop, and the door never opens. He’s easy to ignore until they need him again.

He shivers alone in the dark.

 

* * *

 

Monroe comes with the morning light and a smile on her face, pushing the door open with all the exuberance of someone who’s obviously in charge. Liam rolls his eyes, he hates villains with a flair for the dramatic.

There’s no one with her and Liam feels relief like a wave, because that means she’s not here to take him back to the doctor, at least not yet.

The relief is short-lived, because Monroe with a smile is never a good thing. He waits, body coiled tight against the back wall.

“I know that Theo Raeken is the one you were traveling with,” she says lightly, coming closer to the bars separating them, “but where is your alpha, little wolf?”

The nickname makes Liam growl.

“Oh,” Monroe looks delighted, her hands curling around the bars as she peers down at him with a malicious glee. “Don’t like me asking about Scott?”

Liam wants to look away from her, hide the truth of his anger but he knows that would be a show of weakness. Wolves don’t bare their necks for their enemies.

She hums curiously. “No… that’s not it,” she says, her face smoothing out of emotion. “You didn’t like me calling you little wolf.”

His lips curl back over his teeth of their own accord, fangs just beginning to prick at his tongue. There’s only one person who calls him that, one person _allowed_ to call him that, and it’s not her.

Liam knows he’s fucked up, knows he’s just given her something over him—no matter how insignificant it might seem.

She turns slowly and walks across the room to where the burn mark from the puzzle book still mars the floor, she steps on it and then turns back to him, ashes smudging into her brown boots. She stares at him, hip cocked to the side, arms crossed over her chest and smiles again. “The doctor is making headway,” she tells Liam, “your blood seems to be a better fit for what we’re trying to accomplish.”

There’s a glint in her eyes as she walks back towards the door, smearing the ashes deeper into the stone, walking all over the memories Liam had cherished. “Your little pack is still in Beacon Hills, aren’t they?”

Liam says nothing, his eyes still on her boots. She laughs and then she’s gone.

It’s only once the door has been closed that Liam realizes she never stepped into this room to try and pull information from him. She came in here already knowing, she came in here wanting to rip the hope from Liam’s chest that even though he might die his friends are still out there and safe.

When Monroe is done with Liam, she’s going to go after his pack, use them the way she’s using him. He curses quietly, foot kicking out at the bars in front of him, it sends a dull pang up his thigh, but he ignores it. He hopes that his friends are okay, that they’re safe and prepared for the worst because the worst is coming for them… once it's finished killing Liam.

 

* * *

 

When the door opens again, he snaps his head over to it and the person coming into the room freezes. It’s the young girl from before, a cup held tight in her hands, fingers white with the force of her grip. She closes the door to the room but ventures no further, apparently, she doesn’t like that Liam is wide awake this time.

“Hi,” Liam says.

She huffs, breath blowing away a loose strand of hair from her face. “Shut up.”

Cautiously, she comes closer, boots scuffing on the floor loudly. Liam can’t help but think that if she were out there in the world alone that she would be eaten. It’s a random thought, one he doesn’t like but that the world has ingrained in him over the last several months.

He moves away from the bars, back pressing against the wall, and watches as her stiff posture eases ever so slightly.

“Still not going to tell me your name?” he asks.

“No.” She sits the cup down just outside the cell bars and moves away again.

He watches her head for the door and panics, this girl might be his only shot at getting free. At making sure his friends stay safe. He fumbles in his brain for something to say, something that will get her to talk to him but he’s at a loss for words. Theo pops into his head, Theo with his taunting words and his smooth way of pulling information out of people. Liam would never admit it to the chimera, or anyone else for that matter, but he’s always thought that it was impressive how easily Theo was capable of manipulation. How it came to him so naturally. Liam hates that he’s always thought it was cool, but at the same time he can understand why it was needed, what with the way Theo had grown up.

_Think like Theo,_ Liam tells himself. _Taunt her, make her speak even though she doesn’t want to. Survive._

Liam lightens his voice and asks, in an almost condescending manner, “You look pretty young. How old are you? Twelve?”

The girl comes to an abrupt stop and whirls around, an insulted look on her face. “I’m fifteen.”

Liam’s heart thuds excitedly in his chest _. It worked._ He cocks his head to the side, “You sure?”

Her face goes livid and she moves closer. “Why wouldn’t I be sure?”

Liam shrugs at her, tries not to wince as it pulls the skin of his still healing wounds. “Some people like to lie.”

“Not me,” she tells him with all the earnestness of someone her age.

Liam thinks over his next words carefully. He has to get her on his side, or at the very least, on whatever side isn’t Monroe’s. He sucks in a quick breath and lets it out slowly.

“Then why are you working for Monroe?” Liam asks, his eyes carefully watching her face, trying to pick up on any indication that she’ll believe him. “She loves lying, especially to teenagers like yourself.”

He waits a moment, debating, and then adds almost casually. “She also likes to get them killed for the wrong cause.”

The girl’s eyes widen ever so slightly, her back straightening. “You don’t know anything about her,” the girl says but she doesn’t sound as confident anymore.

“I know a lot about her,” Liam says seriously, eyes pleading for her to listen to him. He stands up slowly, moves closer to the bars, his fingers wrapping around them as he leans in and says softly, “She’s not a good person.”

He glances over at the door, tries to hear if anyone might be outside, but it’s hard to hear anything over the loud thumping of the girl’s heartbeat. “You’re going to get hurt because of her and I don’t want that to happen to you. Too many people have lost their lives because of her and the people she has around her..”

Confliction mars the girls face, a small swirl of fear and confusion wafting around her body like a perfume. She shakes her head vehemently. “Liar!” she spits out and before Liam can say another word, she hurries out the door, leaving it wide open behind her.

There are footsteps, heavy and familiar coming towards the room and Liam backs away from the bars. Roger peers at him from the open doorway, eyes suspicious and beady as he reaches into the room, grips the door handle and closes it with a resounding snap.

Liam releases a loud breath, hopes that the small seed of doubt he planted grows into thick vines, hopes the girl comes back with questions that he can answer.

* * *

 

She doesn’t come baring questions, or water. She doesn’t come back at all. Liam hopes that it’s because she heeded his warning and ran away, abandoned Monroe and the crazy woman’s plans. He tries not to think that she hasn’t come back because something has happened to her. Worry still tugs at his heart, the same way exhaustion pulls at every other part of him.

 

* * *

 

Liam doesn’t know how long he’s been a prisoner here. Time is strange, a made-up concept; Liam knows this, but it’s never had much precedence in his thoughts before now. Even while traveling with Theo he never much thought about it.

He knows months have passed since the first sigh of the outbreak had appeared, and since they started this daunting voyage, but the passage of time was never that important. Liam had always known it would take them a long time to get home—it’s not exactly like trekking across the United States during an apocalypse is easy. He had just wanted to get home in one piece, no matter how long it took.

Now though, locked away in a tiny, cold jail cell with only his own tangle of thoughts to keep him company when the walls begin to press in on him, he thinks about time a lot. It can’t have been very long since he was first brought here, though it has felt like a lifetime since he’s last closed his eyes and slept. Time passes slowly, but each second that he’s not being bled dry is a blessing, one he knows will be short-lived sooner or later.

He glowers at the bars. He’s tugged at them, kicked and pushed and screamed at them, but they refused to budge even an inch, the metal firmly planted in the cement floor. He’s a fucking werewolf, he’s pried open elevators and ripped doors off of cars. He should be able to bend some damn bars and yet he can’t.

He sucks in deep breaths. “Stupid,” he whispers at the bars, at himself, at everything in his life.

The drug, whatever Monroe injects him with each time she comes to take him to that creepy little room at the end of the hallway makes him feel floaty and nauseous, weak. The only thing that keeps him grounded is the ever-present ache in his body and the icy ground beneath him.

He leans his forehead against the bars, thumps it twice and lets himself feel the pain of it. He has to shake off this strange fog, has to break free.

Or else, he really might die here.

The door opens, and Liam hates how much he’s come to hope for it to be Theo opening it. It’s never Theo. It’s never the girl either. It’s always Monroe.

He can feel her eyes on him the moment she strides through the door towards him, it makes his skin crawl. He doesn't look up at her though. Instead, he pretends she's not even in the room, his eyes focused intently on the ashes in the middle of the room. They help to keep his heart steady and his fear at bay. It's all a false bravado, they both know that, but he refuses to be the first one to break. He can't win this war, but he'll win this tiny battle. 

Monroe doesn't say anything either, but Kuan can tell that she's getting irritated. Silence rings on between them, heavy and challenging. Liam bites down on the inside of his cheek to keep his amusement hidden. She'll break first. Liam knows she will. Monroe needs attention otherwise all she has is a werewolf in a cage and that's not what she wants. What she wants is an animal to cower before her, and Liam refuses to ever give her what she wants. 

He's known real fear and it doesn't look a thing like Tamora Monroe. 

"Has the puppy lost his bite?" She taunts at him, her brittle nails tapping against the metal bars. 

_Point 1 for Liam,_ he thinks the moment the words are out of her mouth. He knew she wouldn't be able to help herself. He exhales slowly and lifts his chin, his eyes meeting hers, challenging her. There's a familiar baton in her hand, it reminds him of the one Mrs. McCall sometimes uses in fights. He tries not to show how nervous the sight of it makes him. 

"No witty retorts?" She asks with a mocking sigh and taps the baton onto the bars, it clangs loudly, ringing in his ears like a warning bell. “What a shame, today might be the last day you get to use them.”

Liam’s heart drops to his stomach and he pushes himself up to his feet. The movement is too quick, and he wobbles, his hands reaching out and steadying himself on the bars. She’s here for his final donation. He knows he’s weak and tired, knows that he won’t be able to put up much of a fight, but he’ll try. He has to try.

Without warning, Monroe shoves her arm with the baton through the slats of the cell door and pushes on the trigger. A current of electricity courses through Liam as the end of it catches him in the shoulder, his muscles lock up and his body shakes as he falls to the floor with a cry. 

The cell door swings open creakingly and Monroe steps inside, her presence looming over Liam.

“You—” Liam starts but never gets to finish as she raises up one foot and brings it down sharply on the curve of his knee. There’s a sickening snap as his knee bends the wrong way. He screams in pain, hands scrambling for it, but she kicks him again and he tastes copper in his mouth as he falls back. Her assault continues, heavy blows to his ribs over and over with the sharp toe of her boots, until he can’t breathe, until his lungs burn for air and his eyes water with pain.

Hands grab at him, too strong and large to be Monroe’s. Liam blinks open his eyes, vision blurry with tears and sees Roger’s ugly friend hovering over him. Liam tries to fend him off, but he can’t, he’s too exhausted mentally and physically, too in pain.

“Let me go,” he growls weakly, his blunt nails scratching at the man’s arms. “Stop!”

The man doesn’t listen to him, just grabs him by the hair and pulls him from his cell towards the hallway. Liam cries out as his leg is jarred, sharp pulses rocking through him in time with his beating heart. He sees a thousand tiny black spots dancing in his vision.

“Hurry up,” Monroe snaps from somewhere in the room. Liam can’t think straight enough to pinpoint where she is. “The doctor is waiting for us.”

_No_ , Liam thinks over and over _. No, no, no_. He doesn’t want to go back into that room. He doesn’t want to die. He’s not done with living yet, he’s not… there are things he has to do, things he has to tell Theo.

The smell of burning wicks and stale blood fill Liam’s nose as he’s dragged closer and closer to the room he hates so very much. He claws at the door as they pass over the threshold, his nails digging into the fading paint, scraping it away so it clings to the curves beneath his nails.

“Strap him in,” Monroe tells the man.

Liam cries out as he’s pulled up and thrown down heavily onto the gurney. He struggles as hard as he can.

“Enough of that,” Monroe snaps and then there’s the feeling of cold metal against his neck a second before electric shoots through him again, his body contorts and then falls limply back against the metal bed. “Strap him in, now, but leave his head undone.”

The straps are pulled around his wrists, around his ankles, tight and unyielding. He’s really going to die here. He hopes Theo makes it back to Beacon Hills, hopes he tells Liam’s parents how hard he tried to get back to them.

The doctor steps closer, needle in hand. Liam shakes his head, but the doctor doesn’t move towards the vein in his neck like he’s done the other times. Instead, he reaches for Liam’s arm, fingers tapping along the skin until he finds the spot where he wants to pull blood from. “Hold still, you don’t want to tear your skin.”

Liam gives a strangled laugh. His knee is broken, his body beaten and bruised, but torn skin, yeah, that’s what would suck. “Fuck you,” he chokes out through bloody teeth.

The door swings open just as the doctor finishes and Roger steps inside, followed by the young girl that had given Liam water. The doctor pauses mid-step towards the counter, confusion on his face but neither Monroe nor her second goon looks surprised. Which can’t mean anything good.

“What’s going on?” the girl asks, her eyes darting around the room before landing on Liam. She looks nervous. Liam can practically see his words running through her mind.

_Monroe likes to get teenagers killed_

“Liam, Doctor Waldorf, meet Anna,” Monroe says lightly, gesturing to the young girl. “Our first patient.”

“I’m not sick, though,” Anna says slowly, confusion written on her face.

Liam’s heart lurches as realization settles in. Monroe is going to test the vaccine they’ve been working on, on the girl.

“Run,” he croaks at Anna, but she can’t. Roger’s meaty hands have locked around her arms, holding her captive. She screams in terror as he pulls her over to a second gurney, one that Liam hadn’t noticed, too caught up in pain and worry.

Roger lifts her up easily, her tiny body no challenge for him at all and tosses her down onto the gurney. He holds her down while his ugly friend straps her in, the pair of them ignoring her pleas to be released.

“What is this?” Doctor Waldorf asks. “I thought we would be using one of the older members.”

“You thought wrong,” Monroe says callously. “She’s young, the vaccine has a better chance of working with her, just like a werewolf bite.”

“Or killing her,” the doctor says, voice edging on reproachful. “She’s only a child, Tamara.”

Monroe’s voice goes steely as she turns her eyes to the doctor. “Are you backing out, doctor?”

The doctor turns a helpless gaze to Anna. She cries out to him, eyes flush with tears, cheeks stained. “Please, please let me go.”

“After we’ve come so far? It would be such a shame for you to leave us now.” Monroe’s words seem so innocent, and yet Liam can see the hidden threat beneath them.

“No…,” the doctor tells her, tearing his gaze away from Anna, there’s resolve in his eyes and guilt. “I’m not backing out now.”

Monroe smiles at him, it doesn’t reach her cold eyes. “Good. Then get on with it.”

Anna’s watching with terrified eyes as the doctor moves back toward the counter. “What are you going to do to me?”

“Oh, sweet, sweet, Anna, we’re going to give you a chance at life.”

_And a chance at death_ , Liam thinks, horrified. He doesn’t know what the vaccine could possibly do to Anna, but he doesn’t want to find out.

“What does that mean?” Anna’s voice is quiet and scared. She sounds so small, so young, younger than her fifteen years. Liam wants to cry, he wants to save her, but he can’t even save himself.

The doctor turns around, a needle in his hand again, this one filled with a pinkish serum. Liam knows his blood is in that needle, knows its mixed with other things, one of which has to be O blood. He doesn’t know much about medical stuff, but his father is a doctor, and he does know that in order to make a vaccine against something you have to use the sickness, have to tamper with it and try to bend it to your will. He also knows that the trial runs are never fruitful.

“It means that we’re trying to fight the plague of death outside these walls,” the doctor tells her. “This vaccine might be a shot at accomplishing that.”

Anna sniffs, “What will happen if it doesn’t work?”

The doctor looks regretful as he presses the needle to her skin. “You could die, or you could turn.”

“Don’t do this,” Liam begs the doctor. “Please, she doesn’t deserve this.”

“Quiet,” Monroe snaps and the doctor pricks Anna with the needle, the metal of it sliding into her arm like butter.

“The price for survival is always high, but the payoff is always greater,” the doctor murmurs. “I am sorry that the cost is yours to pay.”

The doctor pulls back, presses a cotton ball to the tiny hole and then eases a band-aid over it. “Now, we wait…And, hope for the best results.”

Liam thumps his head back against the gurney, his eyes squeezing shut. He understands now why Monroe didn’t strap his head down, she wanted him to see this. He listens to Anna’s soft crying and tries not to cry himself.

This isn’t fair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am terribly sorry this took me half a year and that it's both short and terrible.
> 
> This was originally much longer but I had to split it into two chapters.


End file.
